Naruto: Wielder of Nuibari
by stewbert141
Summary: Kakashi manages to bring Sasuke back after Sasuke defeats Naruto, and causes Naruto to leave. Naruto goes to Kiri and there he finds a cave belonging to one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, and the legendary blade Nuibari. Can Naruto master the deadly weapon? What happens when he returns to Konoha, how will he deal with his old team and can he ever find love? Naruto x Ino
1. Chapter 1

Sasuke stared down at Naruto's unconscious body. He thought about the red chakra that enveloped his one time teammate, curious about what it was. He tried to stand up but immediately fell to his knees, coughing up blood. Sasuke was still in awe that Naruto had fought him to the point of near death. Sasuke finally struggled to his feet and began attempting to walk away from the valley of the end. Then suddenly in a blur of speed, a grey haired shinobi appeared in front of Sasuke, someone who he knew very well.

"Ka.. Kakashi, leave me.." He couldn't finish his sentence as Kakashi's fist impacted into Sasuke's gut, knocking him unconscious.

"Your coming back with me Sasuke." Kakashi picked up Sasuke's body and then walked over to his blonde genin, proud of his efforts to stop the Uchiha. He began to run back to Konoha with both genin on his shoulder.

The next thing Naruto remembered was waking up to the familiar sight of the white ceiling that was present in the Konoha hospital. He slowly sat up and opened his eyes. His eyes opened to the sight of Shikamaru with a slight smirk on his face.

"About time you woke up." Said Shikamaru with the smirk on his face. He was happy to see his friend awake and well. After Naruto said this Shikamaru's blonde haired teammate Ino walked in.

"Naruto your awake!" Screamed the blonde kunoichi, apparently thrilled at Naruto's awakening. Naruto was puzzled by the blonde's apparent thrill in his awakening. Ino had never been a big fan of him, but he put it aside, glad to see that some people were happy to see him awake.

"Hey guys.." Said Naruto weakly before coughing loudly as small amounts of blood splattered across his fully bandaged body. Ino ran over and put her hand on Naruto's back.

"Naruto, are you okay!" Shouted Ino before a nurse ran in. That was all Naruto remembered before drifting off to sleep The next time Naruto woke up, he saw many of his other friends had come and checked up on him and wished him a fast recovery before leaving. Naruto found out that everyone had survived the mission and Sasuke had even been returned safely. He was in a high security sector of the hospital for him to rest and be watched. The one person Naruto wanted to see was Sakura, yet she hadn't even bothered to stop by. He had managed to bring back her precious "Sasuke-kun", the least she could do was stop by to check up on him.

Naruto sat in his hospital room for the next week. He received frequent visits from Ino, which he continued to think was weird. He figured she only visited to thank him for bringing Sasuke back. After a week of sitting in the hospital he was finally omitted due to his quick healing from the fox. The only long-term injury he'd have would be a scar on his chest from the chidori that Sasuke put through his chest.

Naruto spent the next two days locked in his room, isolated, not talking to anyone or leaving. Only getting off his couch to use the bathroom or make some food. The Sasuke retrieval mission had brought up multiple questions in his mind. Why did he consider Sasuke a friend? Would a friend shove a chidori through the other's chest, no. Why did he love Sakura? She didn't even visit him once despite him being her teammate and even bringing back Sasuke. There certainly was no reason for him to love her based off of her actions towards him. The biggest question he had yet to answer was what was keeping him in Konoha. Sure there was Jiraya and Tsunade, but two people sure didn't make up for the hell he experienced daily in the village. His own sensei didn't even bother training him.

The next day Naruto decided he'd go check up on Sasuke, and see Sakura, maybe seeing them again would resolve the questions he had running through his mind. He walked into the hospital and entered into the secured area of the hospital. The guard let him enter, knowing he was Sasuke's teammate. The second he entered the room he saw the Uchiha sitting up next to his pink haired teammate.

"Hey-" Naruto couldn't finish his sentence before Sakura began shouting at him.

"Naruto you BAKA! Get out of here! Look what you did to my Sasuke-kun!" Screamed sakura as Naruto stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Sakura, I had to take him back somehow, he did even worse to me." Said Naruto as Sauke looked on in silence.

"You didn't even bring him back Naruto, Kakashi-sensei did! Don't take credit for anything you Baka!" Screamed Sakura. Naruto changed his gaze to Sasuke who immediately looked away. Naruto stood there for a couple of seconds before simply walking out of the section of the hospital. He walked to training ground 7 and collapsed onto the ground. He laid on the ground staring up at the clouds until he finally came to a decision. He had made up his mind he was going to leave the village immediately. He didn't care if he died, or how many supplies he had, he had to leave this cursed village.

That night Naruto walked to the top of the Hokage monument. He looked out onto the village and turned towards the forest and sprinted towards end of it. He got to the wall before he sprinted up the wall full speed. Immediately three ANBU appeared at the top in preparation to stop what ever the jinchuriki was planning on doing.

"Stop right now!" Screamed one of the ANBU. Naruto planned for someone to try to stop him so he channeled as much chakra into his next jutsu. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" said Naruto as hundreds of clones appeared in front of Naruto and all began running in different directions. The ANBU tried to take out as many as they could but they were overwhelmed as hundreds of the clones got to the top of the wall and jumped over. The clones spread out, all going in different directions. The ANBU looked on in horror as hundreds of Narutos took off through the forest outside Konoha in different directions. Rather then pointlessly trying to find the real one they ran to the Hokage's office to tell her what was happening.

"Hokage-sama, Naruto has escaped the village perimeter, he's trying to the leave the village!" Yelled one of the ANBU causing Tsunade to jump out of her seat.

"What!" screamed Tsunade, causing the ANBU to shiver at the ferocity in her voice.

"You couldn't stop him!?" Questioned Tsunade.

"He created hundreds of clones, there was no way we could tell which was the real one, they all ran in different directions." Said one of the ANBU, Tsunade groaned, she knew they couldn't pick out one Naruto from the hundreds, it was impossible.

"How long ago was this!" Yelled Tsunade.

"Around 30 minutes ago." Said one of them. 'Danmit, he's already got a considerable head start, not to mention we'd have to pick him out of the hundreds. Why did he leave in the first place, he got Sasuke back?' Thought Tsunade.

"I want all available ANBU units to search within the fire boarders, make sure to capture, and not kill him, understood!?" The ANBU nodded and departed. Tsunade was furious, she would eventually find out why he left, and when she did, there would be severe consequences. Tsunade wanted Naruto to return, he was like a son to her, though she would never admit it. She had a pretty good idea that they wouldn't be able to catch Naruto with all the fake ones running around, not to mention his stamina.

0o0

The real Naruto darted through the trees, thinking of where he was heading. He had decided that he would go towards Mist since he figured that Konoha wouldn't think he'd go to a war zone. Naruto ran for hours until he crossed the fire border and crossed into Mist territory. Then suddenly, the memory of many of his clones farther back being dispelled began hitting him. 'They're coming..' thought Naruto as he pumped all the chakra he had into his feet. He made an all out sprint for an hour until he hit a remote path into mist had to find a place to hide and quickly, he didn't want Kiri or Leaf ninja finding him, not to mention he was exhausted. A couple of minutes after crossing the border he saw a cave. He slowly walked into the cave, exhausted from his escape from Konoha and collapsed onto the cave's floor.

The next day Naruto woke up to find himself, not on a gravel food, but a cold tiled floor. 'Thats weird?' thought Naruto at the feeling of tile on the slowly stood up, not sure of where he was. He looked back and saw the exit to the cave and thought about leaving but he decided against it. There had to be some reason for the cave being tiled. He walked farther into the cave until he came upon a large stone boulder blocking the path. It was quite obvious it was put there to block people from entering. Naruto created a shadow clone and formed a rasengan before slamming it into the boulder, completely destroying it. He stepped into the clearance of the cave and the second he walked in lights flickered on revealing a relatively large room filled with scrolls on shelves and a wooden table in the center. Naruto walked up to the table and saw a mask with small eye slits and a small blue triangle at the bottom. The mask covered a note and had a sealing scroll next to it. Naruto picked up the note and began reading it.

_Hello to whoever is reading this, my name is Kushimaru Kuriarare, one of the Legendary Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, and wielder of the deadly blade Nuibari, or sewing needle. Whoever is able to find this note can obtain both my blade and mask and do with them as you please. I'm writing this in my last hour so I will have to make this quick. If you do plan on using Nuibari, do not put it to shame, master it and perfect its abilities. The scroll near my mask has the blade. If you choose to attempt and use it, note that it will not be easy. It is one of the most difficult blades to master in the world. The scrolls around the rest of my base here has tips and jutsu that will help you with Nuibari. I wish whoever attempts to wield my blade next the best of luck, goodbye._

Naruto placed the note down and his face was in shock. He had just found the base of one of the most feared shinobi in the world. One of the Legendary Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist. Naruto remembered his fight with Zabuza who was one of the strongest shinobi he'd ever seen. This "Kushimaru" was just as powerful as him. Naruto remembered Kushimaru's letter, it said if he was to use his blade, that he couldn't put it to shame. He figured that before he decided to choose got use it, he should at least see what it looked at. Naruto pumped some chakra into the scroll causing a poof of smoke to appear until what looked like a huge needle appeared. Naruto slowly reached down and picked up the needle like blade. He decided then and there that he would master Kushimaru's old weapon, and he sure as hell wouldn't let him down.

Thus, began Naruto's new life as the wielder of nuibari. Naruto read scroll after scroll, learning how to utilize the blade in combat. He began learning how to use it in combat, often battling against clones. The scrolls present in the room also contained various jutsu used by Kushimaru and other ninja from the Mist. The first thing Naruto picked up from the scrolls was how using the blade effectively required being extremely gruesome. The blade was called sewing needle due to its ability to penetrate any body and continue to do so, forming bundles of bodies along the wire. Naruto found one that was familiar, Zabuza's Hidden Mist technique which Naruto took a liking to. He remembered how effective this jutsu could be when using it with silent killing. One of the keys of being one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist was the use of intimidation and scaring your enemy. Naruto remembered how proficient Zabuza. He had basically paralyzed Naruto in fear when they were fighting. According to one of the many scrolls in the training room, Kushimaru's main form of intimidation was a high-pitched laugh that would echo throughout Zabuza's mist. Naruto made it a goal of his to try to imitate or come close to the spine tingling laugh that Kushimaru would echo through the mist.

Naruto continued reading upon how Kushimaru was able to master the blade. Kushimaru was an extremely skinny and bony shinobi but was extremely flexible and fast. The type of person who was fast and versatile was perfect for nuibari because it allowed for the user to quickly catch the blade when thrown or to be able to avoid hits and move your body in ways to be able to sew the needle through bodies in acrobatic form. The cave contained a couple of cabinets and a small refrigerator. Naruto assumed that Kushimaru must have spent quite a bit of time living in this cave as well, probably to avoid the war that was going on in the mist. Naruto would seldom wander outside of his cave, only to find small forms of meat but mostly herbs and vegetables for salads. Naruto's new small diet caused him to lose weight rather quickly. He soon resembled Kushimaru but not quite as skinny, he had some small bits of muscle on him.

o0o

The cave also had a passage which lead to fairly large opening in the cave which he assumed Kushimaru used for training since there were multiple training dummies and senbon scattered across the area. The dummies all had small wholes running through them which he guessed were from using nuibari. This was where Naruto trained with Nuibari, attempting to weave his new needle sword through every single dummy. Naruto also practiced his hidden mist technique and various water ninjutsu from the scrolls in the cave due to the small river that ran through the cave.

Naruto trained vigorously for three years in his cave, often for around six hours a day. No one interfered with him, and he doubted anyone even knew he was in the cave, let alone in Mist territory. No one ever spotted him getting food, and he doubted anyone heard him training within the cave since most of his fighting style required silence to maximize results. He had been able to nearly master Nuibari, not quite to Kushimaru's level but extremely close to it. He learned many jutsu which could be used in collaboration with the blade, and even managed to create a few of his own. He had mastered Zabuza's Hidden Mist Technique and had also mastered many water based ninjutsu. Naruto was now extremely proficient in using Nuibari in the mist. Naruto often created many shadow clones and hunted them down within the mist. He had been able to come up with what he thought was a rather creepy, and intimidating laugh. It was pretty high-pitched and like Kushimaru's, it was able to echo through the mist. He had also kept up with his training with the ransengan and was now able to form it with one hand alone. Naruto had also picked up on various ways to use shadow clones, one of which was attaching explosive tags to them, causing them to get close to targets and then detonate. Naruto also had come up with various techniques that worked in collaboration with jutsu he had mastered, typically resulting in extremely destructive and deadly new ones. Naruto had also read a scroll on a jutsu that seemed rather disturbing and dangerous. apparently the seven ninja swordsman were also relatively proficient in sealing, and were often called upon to battle the three tailed biju, native to Mist. It was labeled as forbidden and was a sealing technique that ultimately resulted in the death of both the user and target. Naruto held on to the scroll, he figured he may learn to use it later on. He had also grown a couple of inches, and was now respectably tall, and lanky. He had a small amount of muscle but was overall a rather skinny guy. He had taken to wearing Kushimaru's mask constantly, however he had made some adjustments to the mask. Instead of the blue triangle that was on the bottom of the mask, he painted it red and instead of the mist symbol on it, he added the Konoha one instead. Naruto wore the mask constantly for the final two years in the cave, only slightly lifting it to eat.

While in the cave Naruto had pondered what he was going to do after completing training with Nuibari. Sure he could probably train for more years, but he had gotten relatively lonely after not interacting with any other people in three years. He could probably go and join the Mist, but that could go poorly due to the recent or possibly continuing civil war in Kiri. Naruto decided it would probably be best to return to Tsunade in the Leaf. Then the thought of his team hit him. His sensei who ignored him, his ungrateful and stuck up teammate who nearly killed him and the annoying pink haired bitch who he used to have a crush on. Naruto periodically thought of them during his three years in Kushimaru's cave and every time he did, his anger rose. When he saw them again he would make sure he scared them shitless. Naruto had faced the reality that to wield Nuibari would require being extremely gruesome, and fully accepted by the end of the three years to the point that when training with his clones he only went for vital spots in the body.

It had been three years and four months since Naruto left the village and he finally decided he would return to the Leaf. He did miss Tsunade, Jiraya and his few friends he had. It would be nice to finally interact with people again. Naruto gathered up all the scrolls in Kushimaru's cave and put them into one huge sealing scroll. He then grasped Nuibari and began walking out of the cave he had spent the last three years of his life in. Naruto summoned twenty shadow clones who went and found the largest boulder they could and placed in front of the entrance, hopefully preventing anyone from finding Kushimaru's one time base. Naruto slowly began walking and within five minutes was into the Land of Fire. He had forgotten how close he was to being in Leaf territory.

Naruto walked for around two hours until he picked up on multiple chakra sources. There were around 30 ninja who were darting through the trees, and three of the chakra signatures were fading quickly. Naruto thought he might as well check it out, it would be good to possibly test out his abilities against actual opponents.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone, so heres the next chapter, I'll try and update another chapter before my school starts again on monday. I'm really happy that so many people have taken some interest in this story so far, I'm really enjoying it. To answer some questions I've got, Naruto will be slightly darker, especially in combat but besides that he shouldn't be too much different besides changes that you'll see later in the story. So here's the next chapter.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I'd really like to know what I'm doing well, and also some ideas would be great so I can continue planning ahead with the story thanks.**

* * *

Sasuke, Sakura and Ino sprinted as fast as they could from the enemy ninja. They were being hunted down by what they guessed were Kiri hunter nin. The Konoha nin were nearly out of chakra from avoiding incoming attacks and sprinting full speed back to Konoha.

"Sakura, Ino we've got to stop running, I'll try to hold them off for as long as possible, you guys cross over the border, ok?" Said Sasuke. He had grown taller and had developed the mangekyo sharingan. However, after fighting off tons of Kiri hunter-nin, the elites of the Kiri military force, he was exhausted. A couple of seconds after Sasuke stopped his team, 25 hunter-nin appeared in front of the three Konoha shinobi.

Sasuke, Sakura and Ino had all changed. They had grown taller and their bodies developed. After Sasuke was forcibly returned to Konoha, he suffered extreme scrutiny from the Hokage, but got off with nearly no punishment. The council refused to allow any reprocussions to come upon him, stating that the curse mark forced him to do it. However, Sasuke now continuously had six ANBU following him in the village. Over three years Sasuke earned back the trust of even the Hokage, fulfilling mission after mission. He even became extremely defensive of Konoha, often going to extreme lengths to kill anyone who insulted his homeland on missions. Sasuke continued too have his superiority complex about him due to him being Uchiha, causing many of the other Rookie 9 and Team Gai to dislike him, not to mention many of them considered him to be the reason for his one time friend's departure. He still maintained his cold attitude towards others, but had grown closer to Sakura. He didn't have romantic feelings for her but by the end of the three years Naruto left, he felt he could eventually. Naruto was an entire different story for the Uchiha. After word about Naruto's departure, Sasuke had become quite angry, saying that Naruto contradicted himself by not allowing him to leave but then ended up leaving himself. As the months progressed, the Uchiha's anger transformed into extreme guilt. The realization of what possibly drove him to leave hit him. People on the streets were thrilled he left, often saying "Thank Kami the demon is gone!". Sasuke picked up on the extreme hatred the villagers had towards him after his experience fighting him and seeing the fox caused him to completely understand. They hated him for the Kyubi within him, despite him having no choice over the matter. Sasuke thought back to how terribly not only himself but Sakura acted towards him, which made him feel terrible. Then he thought back to the night when Naruto walked into his hospital room. He went on to leave the room due to Saukra yelling at him and Sasuke ignoring him, Naruto then left the village that night. Sasuke drew that he was directly responsible for Naruto's leaving. However, he had deservingly been promoted to Jonin because of his vast mission experience and success. He also had no interaction with Orochimaru since nearly joining him all those years ago.

Sakura had been training under the Hokage in medical jutsu and had become quite proficient at it. She was one of the best medics in Konoha and was labeled a medical prodigy. She still maintained her obsession with Sasuke, despite being called out on it by many of her one time friends. Nearly two years after Naruto left she began to stop becoming completely obsessed with the Uchiha, but still loved him. After Naruto's defection front the village, many of her friends directly blamed her for his departure along with Sasuke, resulting in an almost complete dissociation with the other Rookie 9 and Team Gai with an exception of Sasuke and her newly added team member Sai. Sakura's attempted romantic relationship with Sasuke hadn't really gone anywhere. He was more social with her but by no means were they romantically connected. Naruto was also a sour point for Sakura. For the first year Sakura was happy that the boy left, often saying that it allowed more time for her to spend with Sasuke and that she no longer had to deal with him constantly asking her out. But as the years went on, guilt slowly grew within her. She knew she was one of the direct reasons he left due to her final statements to the boy the night of his departure and her overall treatment of him. She often though about what she would say if she ever saw him again, but hoped she wouldn't. She didn't know what she'd say, no apology would make up for the cruelty she exhibited towards him.

Ino had also been training with the Hokage, but only learned enough to heal people in the field which is what she aimed for. She was quite skilled in medical jutsu, easily one of the best in Konoha but was by no means a Sakura. She had worked on and mastered many various techniques regarding her clan. Her father had worked with her, and was impressed at the development she exhibited. She wa snow a chunin and had become an apprentice to Ibiki in the torture and interrogation department. Naruto's departure was somewhat hard on her, but not too much. She wondered why it affected her at all but disregarded the subject about a year after he left. She had never really been close with the blonde boy. She often wondered why she had spent so much time with him those days in the hospital, but never came up with an answer.

"Surrender immediately and your lives might be spared" Said the leader of the Kiri nin. Sasuke's team looked at each other, silently debating their options until a squeaky and eerie voice echoed throughout the battlefield.

Naruto looked on in shock. On his trip back to Konoha he had run into none other than the two people he had grown to hate the most over the past three years. The ones that had motivated him to get stronger. Naruto felt his temper began to flare for the first time in years. He felt the fox's chakra begin to rise but he quickly calmed himself. 'I won't attack them, especially if I want to return to the Leaf...' thought Naruto, contemplating what he would do. Then an idea hit him, 'Maybe I'll just scare them shitless!' thought Naruto as a wide grin appeared under his mask. This would be his first test using Nuibari, and he swore he would not disappoint Kushimaru. In order to both fulfill Kushimaru's dying request and scare the life out of his ex teammates, he would have to be just as gruesome as Kushimaru. He couldn't show too much of his abilities to the Konoha nin either. He hoped his new high-pitched laughter he had been able to create would be as intimidating as Kushimaru's. Then his thoughts turned to the third member of the Konoha team, Ino. The first thing that came to his mind was, 'Danm... she...changed..' as he looked at her developed body. He remembered she had been one of the few people who had been kind to him after the retrieval mission, regardless of possible ulterior motives, it felt nice to know she somewhat cared. It somewhat pained him to know that she would see him do this but oh well, it's not like she'd ever go for him regardless. With that final thought, Naruto began his first battle with the legendary sewing needle.

"I don't think that'll be necessary, hehe" Said the voice, sending shivers down many of the ninja on the battlefield's bodies. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to many of the Kiri ninja. The voice that it reminded it reminded them of caused dread to spread through the forces, it sounded like none other than Kushimaru Kuriare, except lower, one of the Seven Legendary Ninja Swordsman of the Mist. The voice also sounded somewhat familiar to the Konoha nin, but none could place their finger on who it was.

"I…It can't be.." Said one of the Mist shinobi, completely terrified. After this was said, a form appeared in front of the Konoha shinobi in a blur, so fast that even Sasuke had trouble making out who it was. The Mist shinobi's eyes widened in terror as before them seemed to be a reincarnation of the mighty Kushimaru. The figure wore a Kiri ANBU mask, exactly the same as Kushimaru's but instead had a red triangle at the bottom of the mask and had a Leaf logo on the forehead of the mask. The man's hair was golden blonde. It was long and spiky and went around the sides of the mask, similar to that of the Fourth Hokage's. The item that frightened them the most was the weapon that the figure was wielding over his shoulder, one of the blades of the Seven Ninja Swordsman, the sewing needle Nuibari. Sasuke, Sakura and Ino had no idea why the kiri shinobi were so scared, it was just one shinobi.

"H..How are you alive?" Asked one of the Kiri

"Hehe… I'm not Kushimaru, the man you all fear" Said the man causing the Kiri ninja to exhale, fear starting to leave their systems.

"However, in order to fulfill his final dying request, I have become just as skilled as him in wielding my favorite little toy here hehe" Said the figure, his high-pitched laughing sending shivers down the spines of everyone in the area. Sasuke then commented,

"Who are you, and why are you wielding such a stupid looking weapon.." Asked the Uchiha, still confused in the obvious terror the man had caused to speed through the ranks of the kiri nin.

"Sasuke Uchiha... I have no words to speak to you or the pink haired girl on your team, consider yourself lucky I'm saving you." This comment enraged Sasuke,

"Saving us! You haven't done anything! And why do you have a Konoha symbol on your mask, I've never seen you, your lucky I haven't killed you yet." Yelled the Uchiha causing the figure to laugh in his maniacal tone.

"Hehe, well then why don't I show you some of my skill?" As the figure went through hand signs that were all too familiar to the Kiri nin.

"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Yelled the masked man. Sasuke and Sakura remembered the jutsu from fighting Zabuza, one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist.

"I thought that Zabuza was the only one of the swordsman who could use that jutsu!" Screamed one of the Kiri nin. None of them could see anything. Soon after screams filled the ranks of the Kiri nin as wires began to go through their bodies.

This was Naruto's first test against actual shinobi, and he was set on making Kushimaru proud of the next wielder of Nuibari. After the mist set in he began his silent killing assault upon the Kiri nin, silently maneuvering around the mist, continuing his maniacal high pitched laughter, which terrified the Mist nin even more. His practice with the technique allowed him to hear and sense almost every one of the enemies movements. He began his assault by throwing Nuibari at one of the Kiri nin who had no idea it was coming and pierced him through the heart as he let out a short scream of pain before dying. The end of Nuibari was made of a thick and wide butt end so that after the needle part of the blade pierced through the body of the nin, the needle would separate from the butt end causing the wire of the blade to appear, allowing the weapon to travel a great distance until stopped. Part of Naruto's training with nuibari required great speed so that he could catch the needle after it pierced through the body, allowing him to maximize the large amounts of wire present in the blade. Naruto continued his onslaught, throwing the needle part of the blade with deadly accuracy, resulting in the instant death of many of the Kiri shinobi. After killing 20 of the kiri shinobi with this method he decided to use one of the abilities of his blade that caused many to dread the sight of Kushimaru in combat. Naruto angled the wires of his blade in certain direction causing the bodies of the killed Kiri shinobi to slide along the wire until their corpses hit each other at a certain point along the wire, causing there to be a large bundle of lifeless bodies at a certain points along the wire.

Throughout the battle quick and short screams followed by the maniacal laugh of the masked man with the needle sword were heard in the mist. Sasuke was exhausted and so was the rest of the team, but even more so they were scared and confused by this man. Why was he helping them on what seemed to be a suicide battle. Ino became too tired and began swaying due to chakra exhaustion until she began falling to the ground. Sakura heard her body fall to the ground and immediately began to try and heal her despite her low chakra reserves. Sasuke continued to hear the screams until only silence was heard. He listened as the remaining kiri shinobi began calling out to their comrades, wondering if they were ok. Soon after the stop of screaming, the mist began to subside, slowly revealing blood stained grass, and then… then Sakura and Sasuke saw a bundle of bodies attached by ninja wire. But, the wire was attached to the needle sword the masked man had.

"Hehe, told you Uchiha, you shouldn't underestimate people." Laughed the mask man as Sasuke and Sakura looked on in horror. There were now only 5 remaining Kiri hunter ninja remaining, and they were slowly backing away. If not for the masks they were wearing, Sasuke could have seen the look of pure dread on their faces. The five ninja quickly turned around in an attempt to run away but the masked man's hidden mist jutsu quickly enveloped the battle field once again, preventing them from seeing where they were going. The man's laugh echoed through the mist, once again sending shivers down everyone on the battlefield's spines.

Naruto needed to figure out why these kiri ninja were attacking his ex-classmates. The easiest way to get information that he knew of was one of Kushimaru's most gruesome and painful techniques.

"Long Sword art: Wire Crucifixion!"

Naruto quickly began throwing his needle over one of the Kiri ninja's arm and then threw it under. He did this to the other arm and then jumped up onto a branch above the ground, still holding the wire loosely. Once on the branch he pulled the wire upwards causing the enemy ninja's arm to spread outwards horizontally. The man screamed in terror wondering what was happening. Due to Naruto pulling the wire upwards the ninja's body slowly rose off the ground. Naruto wrapped more of the wire from the sword around a branch, leaving the man dangling. He then wrapped more wire around the ninja's body as he dangled from the branch above. Naruto then through the wire through the ninja's stomach causing him to scream in pain. Naruto then pulled on the wire's wrapped around the ninja and pulled him against the tree. He then rapped more wire from nuibari around the ninja's limbs, rendering him immobile and slowly bleeding out. The way the man was tied to the tree gave off the look of a crucifixion as his arms were speed horizontally across the trunk of the tree while his legs were tied vertically down the trunk. Naruto then did this process with each of the Kiri nin as each screamed out in pain.

Sasuke listened on in horror as the remaining Kiri nin continued to scream.'He's keeping them alive' thought Sasuke, as he waited anxiously to see what the masked man had done to the remaining enemy shinobi. The mist began clearing as and even more disturbing sight than the bundle of dead men appeared in front of them. In the trees the five remaining Kiri shinobi were tied to the tree with wire's wrapped around them while some wires went through parts of their bodies. It appeared as if they were being crucified. Sakura nearly threw up at the disgusting sight as blood slowly poured out of the points where wire had entered through the Kiri nin's bodies.

"Hehe, now you five are going to answer all of my questions, and I'll end you quickly rather than leaving you to rot here for at least a day. I could even create some clones to entertain you some more, hehe." Sasuke watched as the masked man jumped onto the branches with his needle sword over his shoulder. The man took off the masks of all the remaining Kiri nin revealing faces that were both terrified and wincing in pain.

"We…We'll n..never say anything to you!" Said one of the Kiri nin timidly. The man laughed at this response.

"Hehe, oh we have a pesky one here. I'll make an example of just how much pain I can make you feel!" Laughed the masked maniac. Sasuke had seen many crazy and cruel people in his days as a ninja. He'd even come face to face with Orochimaru. But something about this man made him want to kill himself rather than listening to that high-pitched maniacal laugh that made him feel sick to his stomach. The man jumped onto the branch above where the man who protested against him hung. The masked man pierced the ninja through his left shoulder then wrapped the needle around the trunk and pierced the blade through the back of his right knee and then pierced the man through his right shoulder and around the back of his left knee. The man screamed out as loud as he could as the man continued to pierce the man in the same way. This process continued five times before the masked man laughed again.

"Hehe, so any of you going to not answer me? Because that man can still be sewn through at least twenty more times this way alone before he dies. Nuibari causes the person who it pierces to bleed out little by little, causing the most suffering possible." Said the man coldly causing the already terrified and in pain ninja to slowly shake their heads to answer no, and signify that they would comply with his demands.

"Good, so would any of you tell me why your chasing these three Konoha ninja?" Asked Naruto

"Th..they could have had information that could possibly be useful for our nation." The man who answered stared at Naruto, pleading for mercy. Whoever was or had become the Mizukage clearly didn't have any control over their shinobi. No one could see the glare that was underneath Naruto's mask. Naruto slowly removed nuibari from his shoulder and pointed it at one who answered his question. He then through the sword as you would throw a dart, right at the ninja's head. It penetrated him right in between his eyes and thudded into the trunk of the tree. Naruto yanked at the wire to pull the needle part of nuibari back into his hand.

"So you guys, attacked that poor blonde haired girl, that stupid pink haired slut and the Uchiha with a stick up his ass simply because you thought they might have information to help your nation?" The four remaining ninja nodded slowly, in complete fear.

"Hehe, while I don't mind you attacking the Uchiha and bubblegum girl over here, you did do so without orders from you kage, correct?" The four nodded again. Sasuke and Sakura were somewhat angry by the man's comments but were simply to scared to say anything. Sakura was also almost nearly exhausted from barley managing to save Ino.

"Hehe, well then I guess I can't let any of you survive, you are a disgrace to your village, simply causing conflict without even considering the aftereffects, good bye, Hehe" Said the masked man, as he pulled out four senbon. He threw them each individually, hitting them in the neck, as the four remaining kiri hunter nin died.

Sasuke continue to look on at this man, no, this maniac as he killed the final four enemy shinobi. The man jumped down to the bloody bundle of bodies and started pulling the long wire back until it formed back into simply the needle blade with the wire wrapped around the inside of the blade. All the corpses of the slain enemies fell to the ground. Sasuke began shake a little as the masked man walked up to him and began to speak with one of his bone tingling laughs.

"Hehe, Oh Uchiha, its been a while since I've had this must fun, hehe. I do wish it could continue but your two friends over there seem pretty out of it." Said the man as Sasuke cautiously turned around to see his two female teammates lying unconsciously on the ground. Sasuke looked back at the man and managed to mutter out a question.

"W..Who are you?" The man laughed at his question.

"Hehe, oh Sasuke-kun, you don't remember me? I'm hurt hehe." Laughed the man with an evil tone to his voice. Sasuke couldn't get over how familiar his voice was when it wasn't high-pitched, but he just couldn't place his finger on who it was. The masked man lifted up his needle sword onto his shoulder causing Sasuke to filch which caused the man to laugh even harder. Naruto grinned like a madman under his mask. This was great, he had Sasuke terrified.

"Hehehe, don't tell me the mighty Sasuke Uchiha is afraid of someone with such a "stupid weapon" hehe." Sasuke attempted to respond but couldn't get over how gruesome this man was. He knew he would have remembered someone this gruesome, so he must have never met him before. As Sasuke finished his thought, he saw the masked man move over to his two unconscious teammates. Sasuke began to move to intercept him until he halted as the man's needle weapon was placed at his throat. Sasuke didn't dare to make another move as he had already seen the amount of damage the man had caused with that sword and without even seeming to break a sweat. He had managed to wipe out 25 Kiri shinobi with using essentially one jutsu, and that needle sword, which was currently at his neck. Sasuke watched as the man bent down while keeping his blade at Sasuke's neck. He picked up Ino and threw her body over his shoulder and then spoke.

"Hehe, we only have a short journey back to Konoha but your two friends here need attention quickly, so Uchiha, you ready to go?" Sasuke stood dumbfounded, this psychotic maniac was helping him?

"Why are you helping me?" The man turned to face him and said nothing and slowly walked passed him until he said something tto Sasuke.

"I don't know, I've wanted to kill you and bubblegum for a while." Then continued walking towards the village. Sasuke found him self paralyzed in fear. That's right, the mighty Sasuke Uchiha was terrified. He didn't know what he'd do against a maniac like that in combat. Sure he had his sharingan but that was nearly rendered useless in the mist, not to mention the fact that this guy seemed to adore killing. Not just killing, but actually torturing his enemies. He knew he couldn't allow this man to enter the Leaf village, he had to somehow warn the village he was coming, but then a thought struck him, he had Ino. He then thought for a second, he was an Uchiha, one of the strongest shinobi in the hidden leaf village, he would take this guy down, regardless of who the masked man was, he would defeat him. A smile appeared on his face as he picked up Sakura's body and through it over his shoulder and began to try and catch up to the masked man.

Sasuke was running at probably 1/4 speed due to his lack of chakra at the moment but he saw what looked like the man with Ino over his shoulder. Sasuke took out two kunai and threw them at the man's body. He saw them impact, only to see the two figures disappear in a puff of smoke. Then ten clones of the man surrounded Sasuke, each with a needle sword pointed at him.

"Hehe, I don't believe your in any shape to be fighting, let alone fighting me." Said one of the clones, then another one chimed in.

"Maybe we should go with the wire crucifixion technique, I remember how much he loved that one!" Said another one maniacally. Sasuke was extremely nervous, this was a really bad situation, there was no way he could fight the clones, let alone the real man. Then one more chimed in. He was hoping he could possibly take the man by surprise, but that had obviously failed.

"No, no, no, we've gotta follow the bosses orders, we can't be killing off Leaf nin, the old bat wouldn't like that, especially if it was the Uchiha scum-bag." Sasuke gritted his teeth at this comment, the man obviously had a grudge against either him or the Uchiha clan and he wasn't happy about it.

"Listen you freak, your even more screwed up then my older brother, or even Orochimaru but your not even that strong, you just use that stupid needle of yours. When I'm fully rested 'll make sure that I kick your ass!" Screamed the Uchiha, causing the ten clones to laugh. Before Sasuke could respond the clones all dispersed in clouds of smoke. Sasuke got even angrier but there was nothing that could be done, he'll deal with the masked man next time he sees him, as Sasuke continued a slow paced run back to Konoha.

Sasuke soon saw the front gate of Konoha. After about 5 more minutes of running he entered into the village gates only to collapse on the ground from exhaustion, with Sakura's unconscious form lied on top of him. The two guards at the gate immediately signaled for ninja to come get the two injured teammates, but all commotion was cut off at the sight of tall, and skinny man with a kiri hunter-nin mask walking up to the gate. He wore bandages from the tips of his shoulders up to his chin, completely hiding his neck. He wore black ANBU pants along with long grey leg guards with grey sandals. The ninja had a black sleeveless shirt that hugged his skinny but well toned chest and managed to cover his shoulders. He also wore grey arm guards going up to his elbow. The most disturbing thing that the guards noticed was that on one shoulder he held a long needle like blade, and on the other, he held none other than the heiress of the Yamanaka Clan. 'This is really bad' thought the guards as the man entered into the village gates. He then spoke to the guards.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm going to see the Hokage, and I'm taking Ino here with me. You can send ANBU to follow me. I will not harm the girl unless attacked by any of your ninja." The guards nodded their heads while gritting their teeth, this was bad. They couldn't just let the heir to the Yamanaka clan die.

Naruto knew there was no way he would be allowed to see the Hokage if he simply walked into the village. ANBU would probably confront him and he would be put in containment and would have to reveal who he was to everyone, and he wasn't planning on doing that anytime soon. He only planned on only telling Tsunade. 'That'll be an interesting conversation…' thought Naruto. He knew she'd be pissed at him for just leaving but he also thought she'd understand his reasons.

Naruto walked the streets he used too with an unconscious Ino over his shoulder. He felt somewhat bad for holding her as a hostage but he'd much rather prefer to be near her then his two ex-teammates. Plus, she had gotten extremely attractive, but he wasn't the type to take advantage of an unconscious girl, especially one he knew. Naruto remembered that Ino had traditionally been mean to him, however the day he woke up in the hospital she was extremely kind to him. Regardless of her possible motives it was still nice of her to be kind to him, that was something he wasn't accustomed to and something he still hadn't forgotten up to this day.

Naruto continued walking through the streets receiving looks of shock from commoners, and anger from the shinobi. Naruto grinned under his mask at the amusing sight of nearly the whole village staring at him in both terror and anger. Then out of nowhere two jonin who were quite familiar to Naruto appeared in front of him. Naruto frowned at how interesting, and complicated things were getting. In front of him was his one time sensei Kakashi Hatake and the Green Beast of Konoha, Might Guy. Naruto knew it would be quite a difficult fight against these two if it came to it, not to mention he was surrounded by shinobi who had suddenly all drawn weapons. Kakashi and Guy were both viewed as elite ninja in not only Konoha but the entire shinobi world.

"Its quite peculiar to see one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist in Konoha. Especially one rumored to be dead, Kushimaru Kuriarare." Said Kakashi in a hostile tone. Naruto was a little surprised to hear that Kakashi knew about Kushimaru. Not many Konoha shinobi or citizens knew much about the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist. Naruto's smile grew under his mask, grinning how the situation was playing out. Many gasped at the mention of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, they were world-renowned as some of the most feared ninja in history. None except a few older shinobi knew of Kushimaru, but all people present shuddered a bit at the mention of the Seven Ninja Swordsman. Naruto let out one of his high pitch laughs before speaking. Kakashi scowled at the high-pitched chuckles coming from the swordsman. This was definitely a bad situation. He had heard of Kushimaru's peculiar but legendary skill using the sewing needle Nuibari.

"Hehe, oh Kakashi, sharp as usual, however no need to worry, I'm not Kushimaru, I simply found his weapon and mask." All the shinobi surrounding Naruto were confused, why would he admit that he simply found the weapon, he could have come across as much more respectable had he gone on as Kushimaru. Naruto stood there for a while silently as the Konoha nin stared at him in a confused way until he removed Nuibari from his shoulder and began twirling the blade with his fingers. Kakashi's eyes lowered again at how easily the masked man twirled the deadly weapon. He said he wasn't Kushimaru but the person obviously had a lot of skill with the weapon.

"However, I have been training for a little while with it and have become quite proficient at using it. And to prove to you I'm not the extremely gifted previous user of Nuibari, just look at my mask, I altered it." Said the masked figure, his laugh startling many of the Konoha nin. Kakashi looked over the mask to see a small Konoha symbol etched into the mask where the Kiri symbol normally was. Kakashi became even more confused, 'Why does he have a Konoha symbol, thats a Kiri sword and a Kiri hunter-nin mask?'. Naruto grinned even more at the confused looks on the shinobi around him.

"Well then, now that I answered your questions I guess I'll be off, unless you need me to sew some injuries in this beautiful heir to the Yamanaka clan." Said Naruto as he began walking towards the Hokage's office. He prayed Kakashi and Guy wouldn't call his bluff. He definitely wasn't planning on injuring Ino. Guy looked as if he was about to protest but the masked man quickly placed his needle sword at the neck of Ino so he paused. Kakashi and Guy separated allowing the masked man to continue walking towards the Hokage's office with the needle at Ino's neck. By now at least five ANBU divisions and 50 jonin and chunin ninja surrounded Naruto as he walked silently towards the Hokage Tower. As Naruto approached the Hokage tower he saw a unpleasant surprise, the Hokage was waiting for him. This could pose an issue to his plan. He wanted to talk to Tsunade in private, not in front of hundreds of shinobi.

"I demand you tell me what your doing in my village and drop that girl now or I'll beat your ass harder than I've hit anyone before!" Screamed Tsunade, obviously ticked that one ninja had managed to cause this much trouble, not to mention the fact that he was a wimp, he had nearly no muscle on him. She was definitely going to pound him into the dirt.

"Now, Tsunade, what about this lovely girl I have here?"

"If you honestly think I'll risk the entire village to save one person, regardless of how important they are, then your crazy! I'm giving you one last chance to say what you're doing here before I kill you!" Naruto frowned at this response, but he knew he couldn't take Tsunade, let alone the entire Leaf Shinobi Force. Naruto let out one more of his high pitched laughs that he had developed in his time away front the Leaf. Tsunade was somewhat disturbed by the voice and was about to signal the shinobi to attack until the masked man started talking.

"Hehe, oh great and honorable Hokage, you seem to have spoiled my entire plan, oh well. Its been too long… Baa-chan.." There was still no response from Tsunade until a look of realization crept over. 'The bright blonde hair! Of course!' Screamed Tsunade in her head. She was speechless, there was no way he was back, it had been 3 years.

"I..It can't be.." Said the Hokage causing many of the shinobi to gasp at the Hokage's recognition of the man. 'How can she know this monster, did she fight him?' thought many of the shinobi except for Kakashi, he had a relatively good idea of who the boy was, no one else besides his ex student called the Hokage by that name. Naruto activated his most familiar technique, hoping Tsunade would realize its him, the shadow clone jutsu. The clone then took the body of Ino and walked up to the Hokage as two ANBU flashed in front of her.

"Don't worry, back away." Said Tsunade, trying to hold herself together, that jutsu was the one Naruto used the most. She realized Naruto wanted to keep his identity hidden for some reason. The clone placed the unconscious body on the ground and dispelled. As soon as the clone dispelled Ino was picked up by ANBU causing many of the ninja to draw weapons, prepared to take on the mysterious ninja who no longer had one of their fellow shinobi hostage.

"I'll cya soon Baa-chan, its been fun seeing those two scumbags again but I must be off, hehe." Said Naruto as the man standing in front of them poofed into smoke, revealing it to be a shadow clone. Tsunade stood in complete shock at what had just happened. Naruto had just walked into the village, simply to return the Yamanaka girl. Then a thought hit her, 'Maybe he wants Sasuke and Sakura!'.

"Kakashi, Guy, get to Sakura and Sasuke immediately! ANBU go now!" The two jonin and multiple ANBU vanished towards the front gate where they knew Sasuke and Sakura were last seen before the masked shinobi arrived. When they got there they simply saw the masked swordsman standing in front of the gate, staring straight at Kakashi before he spoke. His needle sword slung over his shoulder with bloody wire hanging from the end of the sword.

"Kakashi, you know who I am, and you must have an idea why I left in the first place…" Said Naruto with his mask on, trying to contain his composure, all the built up emotion from the years of pain.

"All those years of being ignored, hated, growing up by myself, no one caring about me, even my own team didn't care about me.." Guy stood in confusion, not understanding what was going on, Kakashi new him as well?

"There were only two people who ever really cared about me in this accursed village and one was gone most of the time." Said Naruto as Kakashi tilted his head down slightly at the memory of his mistreatment of his own student. It became silent, the only sounds being heard were coming from the blood dripping from Nuibari's wires.

"I'm afraid I can't let you touch Sakura or Sasuke….Naruto." Naruto let out a sad smile under his mask, still always protecting those two. Guy stood with a sense of shock written all over his body. This, cruel, cold-hearted guy was Naruto, the wild and cheerful Naruto?

"Hm, always worrying about two of your students, well… more specifically one but that's besides the point. You can have those two pieces of garbage for all I care, they aren't worth my attention." Kakashi frowned again, Naruto really had changed. Gone was the once cheerful and forgiving Naruto, replaced by not necessarily cruel, but realistic Naruto. He fully understood how he was treated when he was younger, and clearly wasn't happy about it. Three ANBU cautiously made their way towards Sasuke and Sakura and picked them up before vanishing towards the hospital. Then a worst case scenario suddenly occurred for Kakashi, a villager decided to speak up.

"Hey you freak, don't touch or talk poorly about Lord Uchiha and that kind young girl or those our ninja will rip you to shreds!" Naruto clenched his teeth, gone was his attempt to contain anger, now replaced by utter rage. He could feel the fox's chakra attempting to seep through but he quickly got a hold of himself. He would deal with the villager himself.

Kakashi noticed a sudden spike in chakra out of Naruto and saw his eye slits glow red for a short time but it was quickly vanished. Kakashi slightly exhaled, at least he wouldn't have to deal with the fox. Kakashi then saw Naruto flash before the civilian who had just spoke. 'This won't go well..' thought Kakashi as Naruto let out one of his new high-pitched, and spine tingling laughs.

"Hehehe, Lord Uchiha? LORD UCHIHA!" Screamed Naruto as the civilian began to slowly back away. Naruto took out his rope of wire attached to nuibari, blood dripping off almost every inch of wire.

"You see all this blood?" Asked Naruto, as the man slowly nodded.

"This is from 25 kiri nin that I killed single handily in order to save that egotistical jack ass! SO DON"T YOU DARE TELL ME TO GET AWAY FROM "LORD UCHIHA"! GOT IT!" Screamed Naruto as the civilian tripped over in fear at the figure of the masked swordsman. Kakashi took in the information he just got, Naruto was strong enough to take out that many elite shinobi? But Kakashi would have to stop this first, he flashed in-between Naruto and the villager who was on the ground. Kakashi pulled out a kunai and began to move it towards Naruto's neck in an attempt to stop Naruto from conducting any further actions but Naruto quickly lept backwards. Kakashi looked up to see Naruto going through the hand signs to one jutsu that he was quite familiar to, Zabuza's Hidden Mist technique. He looked on as mist flooded the streets of Konoha, rendering his sharingan nearly useless. But as quickly the mist appeared, it disappeared, along with Naruto, the new wielder of Nuibari.

"Kakashi, is that really Naruto?" Asked Gai in shock.

"I'm afraid so, and we've got to find him, who knows what he'll do in the village."

0o0

Tsunade had returned to her office, anxiously waiting for any word on the status of Naruto. Luckily he had chosen not to do anything to his two ex-teammates, they were both in the hospital along with Ino, who was doing a bit better than the other two. She had always wondered what happened to Naruto after he left, but this was definitely not one of her expected outcomes. He had become a wielder of one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist's blades, and had become much darker. Then an ANBU knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Yelled Tsunade, hoping for news on Naruto.

"The masked man seemed to have escaped Kakashi and Guy using some mist technique, we can't find him anywhere, however Sasuke and Sakura were safely taken to the hospital." Said the ANBU, as Tsunade groaned. She swore she would destroy that brat if she saw him again. It had been to long since they talked. Even Jiraya, one of the most informed people in the entire shinobi world had seen no sign of him for the past three and a half years. Tsunade nodded her head, dismissing the ANBU. She sat silently for a few seconds before crashing her fist down on her desk, smashing it in half.

"God dammit Naruto, where are you!" Screamed Tsunade in anger. She then heard a voice, the same voice she had become so accustomed all those years ago.

"I see you still have some anger management issues, I guess I'm the only one who's changed here, huh?" Said Naruto who was perched outside her window. Tsunade recognized that voice, the one from three years ago. She immediately turned around to see Naruto, wearing the same Kiri hunter-nin mask with the red triangle at the bottom.

"N..Naruto?" Questioned Tsunade, still not believing that he was finally in front of her.

"Hey Baa-chan.." Said Naruto as he began to rub the back of his head awkwardly, not knowing what to say to the only mother figure he'd ever had in his life. Tears began coming out of Tsunade's eyes as Naruto jumped down from the window sill. Tsunade embraced Naruto tightly for a while before raising a chakra enhanced fist and slamming it into his head, flattening him to the ground.

"You idiot, you had me worried! Where have you been!" Screamed Tsunade with a slight smirk on her face. Naruto slowly stood up with a smile under his mask, it was definitely good to see her again. Naruto began twirling his needle weapon, happy for the first time in a while.

"Sorry Baa-chan, I had to go sort some things through.." Said Naruto in a sad tone which Tsunade quickly picked up on. Tsunade eyes lowered, knowing of all the pain he suffered, which probably caused him to leave.

"I was training in a certain cave, where I found this." Said Naruto as he twirled his blade in his fingers. Naruto also did not want to reveal the location of where he had been for the past years. Tsunade frowned at Naruto trying to conceal information from her but stopped that train of thought when he picked up speaking again.

"But I've thought for a while now and I know I've been gone for a long time but, if it's all right by you, and that annoying council, I'd…. I'd possibly… l'd ..like to maybe rejoin the village, if its ok…." Said Naruto quietly as his gaze changed towards the ground, nervous for the awaiting response. Tsunade's heart skipped a beat, he actually wanted to come back! However, Tsunade did notice he was different to talk to. He wasn't as confident or energetic when holding a conversation, which she guessed was from being isolated.

"O..Of course, Naruto! But you'll have to take off that mask first, I haven't seen your face in 3 and a half years." Naruto smirked under his mask. He hadn't taken it off in at least two years, keeping it on constantly just like Kushimaru had. Tsunade hated that mask, it made it seem as if he was sending her death glares, despite the slight joy he could hear in his voice about seeing her again.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Tsunade, not until everyone knows who I am, I still want it to be a secret.." Tsunade planned on protesting that she was the only one here but then noticed Kakashi had walked into the room.

"Naruto…" Said Kakashi. Tsunade saw Naruto's body tense again as his grip on nuibari strengthened.

"Kakashi…" Said Naruto under his mask, with venom laced in his voice. Tsunade noticed the hostility in his voice and thought she might as well warn him not to do anything restless.

"Ok Naruto, settle down, you have to be initiated into the shinobi force and need to be tested regarding your skill as a ninja, if you attack him or any other leaf shinobi, I'll have to arrest you, ok?" Said Tsunade

"Then why don't we test my skill against Kakashi, it should be relatively interesting, don't you think?" Said Naruto wickedly. Kakashi frowned, he knew he would need to resolve this issue with his ex: student somehow.

"Naruto you just returned to the village, you can't just start up fights! Plus, I still don't even know if your really Naruto, we'll need to conduct DNA testing, understand?" Said Tsunade sternly, trying to avoid a conflict between the two, but she knew it could only be delayed for so long.

"Fine... is my apartment still vacant?" Asked Naruto as Tsunade pulled out a small needle. Tsunade smiled and nodded, answering Naruto's question. Once she had taken enough blood she stepped back signaling she was done. Naruto nodded and began to turn around. Before he could leave Tsunade placed her hand on his shoulder causing him to turn around.

"How do you expect to get in to your apartment without your key?" Said Tsunade as she smirked. Naruto smiled under the mask.

"Well Baa-chan, I think I'm gonna go and rest if that's ok, I won't mind if you post ANBU to watch me, I know your still somewhat suspicious of me just showing up.." Said Naruto as he walked past Kakashi.

"Kakashi, I look forward to a team reunion soon, hehe" Said Naruto as he walked out the door and out of the Hokage building towards his apartment.

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha as hundreds of thoughts raced through his head. He wondered if he made the right choice of returning to the village that despised him. His reuniting with his sensei was definitely as unpleasant as he imagined but it was definitely nice to see Tsunade again. Naruto ignored the glares and whispers of civilians and shinobi in the streets, many of whom had terrified looks on their faces. Naruto quickly got off the main street and entered into an alley and jumped onto the rough of a house. He still remembered the way around the village. He jumped from roof to roof, slowly entering into the poor part of the village until he found his old, rundown apartment complex. He jumped down to the front of the complex and walked up the squeaky wooden stares that led up to his apartment on the top floor. He got to the front of his apartment and looked at the entrance. The door had red spray paint on it saying 'Demon', causing Naruto to sigh. Maybe it wasn't a great idea to come back. He placed the key into the lock and opened the door to reveal the apartment he had spent his younger days in. It was in better condition than he thought it would be, someone had obviously cleaned it up after he left. The room was clean and his bed was made, but dust covered much of the furniture. Naruto quickly walked up to his bed and collapsed into it. Small amounts of dust rose from the bed, but none affected Naruto due to his mask. He slowly got into the covers, exhausted from his extremely eventful first day back in Konoha.

0o0

"He's changed Kakashi." Said Tsunade as she watched Naruto walk down the streets of Konoha. Kakashi sighed as he responded.

"I know, he's much... darker and gruesome." Said Kakashi as Tsunade nodded. Naruto seemed to have lost that personality he had three years ago before the Sasuke retrieval mission. However, when he was alone with her, he wasn't dark at all. He seemed almost timid and scared. It was almost as if he was scared to say something to her that would cause her to get angry. He wasn't as confident in himself. He obviously held a great hostility towards his ex teammates which would have to be resolved soon.

"Should I tell Sakura and Sasuke who he is?" Asked Kakashi.

"No, first we should ask them what happened on the mission, and for at least a little while, lets allow him to keep his identity hidden." Kakashi nodded and sun shined out of the room. After Kakashi left, a small smile appeared on her face. Sure Naruto had changed, but at least he was back. She was sure that after a little while he would become more like his old self. Plus, Jiraya was going to be thrilled when he hears Naruto returned.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey heres the next chapter so please review, I could really use some ideas to write about or incorporate into the story. So heres the next chapter**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

* * *

Ino slowly awoke to the sight of a dull white ceiling present in one of the hospital rooms. She blinked a couple of times to get accustomed to the light and then attempted to move. A shooting pain went through her entire body causing her to grunt loudly. Ino began to think of what could have possibly gotten her in this much pain, but then memories of her last mission with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno hit her.

The team was assigned to go on a mission deep into fire country to deal with strange occurrences in the area. Civilians in the area reported multiple attacks and explosions going on in and outside their settlements. Ino wasn't very happy about the team she was assigned to but she didn't complain. When they finally got to the location of the mission assignment they immediately encountered around fifty kiri shinobi. The three fought as hard as they could but only managed to eliminate around twenty-five of them. The ninja they were fighting were the elite of the Mist shinobi rank. Sasuke, who was in charge of the mission ordered an immediate retreat but the remaining Mist nin pursued. They were all low on chakra and Sasuke ordered them to stop to at least attempt to fight off the remaining shinobi, rather than getting captured running away, which would have eventually happened with the low chakra reserves they had left. That... that was when the masked swordsman appeared. She remembered his eerie voice which made her shiver. She even noticed Sasuke's scared reaction to the laugh of the masked man. That was all she remembered before she passed out. She figured the masked man must have somehow held off the shinobi long enough for her team to escape. Many questions ran through her mind regarding the masked swordsman until someone walked through the door to her hospital room.

"About time you woke up.." Said her teammate and good friend Shikamaru. He was lazy as hell but he was also a genius and the first out of the rookie 9 to become a chunin and then first to become a jonin. Ino began to respond but was interrupted as she began to cough loudly. Shikamaru sighed,

"This really is troublesome." Said the lazy genius. Ino only frowned, too weak to respond to any of her teammate's typical antics. Soon a nurse walked in with a smile on face at seeing Ino awake.

"How are you feeling?" Asked the nurse. Ino smiled weakly and responded,

"Pretty Good, but my body aches and I'm exhausted, what happened?" Asked Ino weakly, the nurse then responded.

"You suffered from chakra exhaustion, had you been brought back to the village an hour later, you might not have made it." Ino sighed, that was to close.

"Well I guess I better thank Sasuke and Sakura for getting me back.." Said Ino, causing Shikamaru to scowl. She didn't remember how she had gotten back at all.

"Do you remember anything about returning to the village?" Asked Shikamaru who was trying to pick up more information on the masked swordsman who had essentially taken his teammate hostage. The weirdest part was that it appeared that the Hokage wasn't doing anything regarding the needle wielding swordsman. He remembered the laugh that the man had that sent shivers down his spine. His blonde hair swayed in the wind around his mask.

"No.. I blacked out after this weird masked man with blonde hair appeared in front of us..and he started fighting the enemy ninja." Said Ino quietly, as she remembered the mist setting in on the battlefield before she blacked out. Shikamaru got a puzzled look on his face, he figured that the masked man had simply kidnapped the Yamanaka as a hostage or bargaining chip to make money or for other possible motives, but from what Ino said, it seemed as if he had saved Ino's entire team. Ino noticed a confused look on her teammate's face. She'd worked long enough with him to notice when he was hiding things. The nurse also got a perplexed look on her face before elevating the room. After the nurse left Ino immediately asks a question towards Shikamaru.

"Ok, what happened, and don't lie to me please.." Said Ino, to tired and in pain to sustain the typical arguments required to get information out of her teammate. Shikamaru noticed her plea, obviously too exhausted to get into another heated exchange the two were use to. Shikamaru knew he probably wouldn't be able to conceal anything from her, plus she'd definitely find out eventually. Shikamaru then sighed.

"How troublesome… that swordsman who appeared in front of you during your mission walked into the leaf village with you over his shoulder. He used you almost as a hostage so no one would attack him." Ino grew angry at this, no one used her as a bargaining chip. She then began to wonder what the man could have done to her when she was unconscious. Her thoughts traveled to Sasuke and Sakura. What happened to them? Did they even try to stop the man? Or were they defeated by the kiri nin and they couldn't protect her?

"The weirdest part of everything was that the homage knew him, and once he saw her he simply gave you over to the Hokage and didn't even ask for anything in return. The man carrying you was a shadow clone and he simply poofed away, I don't know what happened afterwards but the homage has demanded that no one attack or provoke him or there will be severe consequences." Ino got even more confused. The man used her as a hostage to get into the village but then didn't even ask for anything. The Hokage also seemed to know the man, which also perplexed her.

"WHat happened to Sasuke and Sakura?" Asked Ino.

"They got back to the village and instantly collapsed from chakra exhaustion. The Hokage seemed to think the man may be going after them and sent Kakashi and Gai after him but that's all I know.." Said Shikamaru. He was one of the smartest people in the village and even he was somewhat confused by the blonde swordsman who seemed to know the homage personally to the point where she would forgive him for holding a leaf kunoichi captive. Then Shikamaru began making connections in his head, he only knew one person to ever have that bright blonde hair. A look of pure astonishment crept over Shikamaru's face, luckily Ino wasn't paying attention to the lazy Nara. 'Naruto.." thought the Nara as he tried to regain his composure but was too shocked to do so.

Ino on the other hand was in complete shock. She vividly remembered the shape her fellow leaf shinobi were in when they were about to fight the twenty-five kiri nin. If Sasuke and Sakura fell unconscious mere seconds after returning to the village there was no way they could have fought off the kiri nin. 'That swordsman must have done it, he must be extremely strong..' thought the Yamanaka before turning to Shikamaru only to see a face that was full of recognition. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Ino was slightly confused under the Nara muttered out a few words.

"I… I have to go.." Said Shikamaru before leaving, ignoring Ino's shouts for him to get back into her room. Ino sat in her bed in the hospital for around ten minutes until her exhausted body gave out and she drifted into sleep.

0o0

Shikamaru made his way through the streets of Konoha, ignoring nearly everyone and everything. He had one thought on his mind and that was of his one time blonde haired friend who had vanished from the village. He quickly made his way to the poorer part of the village, vaguely remembering how to get to Naruto's old apartment. It was around 10 a.m. so he figured if the masked man really was Naruto, he might be at his old apartment. He slowly made his way to the run down apartment complex that Naruto used to live in.

He made his way up the stair case up to his old apartment. The door had many cruel comments written on the door, most containing 'demon' in them. Shikamaru didn't know what he would say to him once he saw him. From what he'd seen of the boy, he had definitely changed from the care-free and optimistic boy from his genin days. Shikamaru built up his courage and knocked on the old wooden door, deciding he might as well attempt to talk to his one time friend There was complete silence for around thirty seconds and Shikamaru figured he'd left the apartment or just wasn't staying there anymore and began walking away. As Shikamaru was about to walk down the staircase he heard the wooden door creak open and out came a tall blond-haired man with a kiri mask on, but Shikamaru had a pretty good idea who was under the mask.

"Why are you bothering me?" Questioned the masked man causing Shikamaru to finch a little at the hostile tone used, but Shikamaru decided it was now or never to find out if it was really him. Naruto was frowning under his mask, enough people already knew who he was, but he figured Shikamaru would have found out eventually.

"Sorry, I was just here to check up on an old friend…. Naruto" Naruto grinned under his mask at the smirk on Shikamaru's face. He had caught him and there was nothing Naruto could do now. Naruto stood there for around thirty seconds until responding.

"Figured you'd be the first to figure me out, sharp as ever Shikamaru." Shikamaru's smirk grew into a huge grin at the knowledge that his friend had finally returned. Shikamaru didn't really know what to say, should he go give him a hug? Naruto was usually the one to carry on conversations but he figured it was up to him now.

"You know, you probably could have come up with a better way to enter the village then holding Ino hostage." Said Shikamaru, casing Naruto to laugh, not one of his intimidating or high-pitched laughs, but a genuine one and it felt good. Naruto began scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah…I guess your right, so… how've you been?" Asked Naruto awkwardly, not exactly sure what to say or do as well. Shikamaru smiled at the question and began his response.

"Nothing really, I'm a jonin now… its such a drag.. plus I have to look after that annoying girl you took captive." Said Shikamaru, causing Naruto to smile again under his mask, he did miss Shikamaru's pessimistic attitude towards everything.

"And you?" Asked Shikamaru, causing Naruto to tense a little bit, which Shikamaru noticed. Naruto really didn't want to tell anyone where he went or why. Shikamaru sighed at the reaction, he knew he wasn't going to get any real information from him now.

"I won't push for information now, but you're gonna have to talk about it eventually…" Said Shikamaru. He hated the mask the Naruto was wearing. It prevented him from reading any of Naruto's facial expressions, thus preventing him from guessing Naruto's reaction. After a few seconds Naruto nodded his head, agreeing with what he said.

"I know.. but I just got back… not yet." Said Naruto as Shikamaru nodded his head.

"Plus, you better go at least apologize to Ino, at least see how she's doing… you did use her as a hostage." Said Shikamaru with a smirk on. Naruto groaned he knew Shikamaru was right. This was why he didn't want anyone to figure out who he was, it forced him to do unnecessary tasks such as meeting up with old friends which he really wasn't ready to do. He figured he could at least go see if Ino was okay.

"Ok, I'll make sure I go check on her, but I've got to go Shikamaru, so I'll cya around." Shikamaru smiled and nodded, pleased to finally seen his friend after three years, Sure he had changed and definitely mellowed down but he was still one of his friends and planned on keeping it that way. The Naruto in front of Shikamaru poofed out of existence, proving it to be a shadow clone, causing Shikamaru to begin his return back to his home.

0o0

Naruto was running along rooftops towards the Hokage's office when the clones memories hit him, he frowned at Shikamaru's new knowledge about him but figured he wouldn't go around telling everyone, he wasn't that kind of guy. Naruto continued his journey along rooftops, gaining many glares from villagers and shinobi alike due to the past days events. They wondered why he was still in the village and not either being tortured or dead.

Naruto continued his journey towards the Hokage office and eventually made it to the window that Jiraya always entered through. Naruto walked through the main entrance, gaining gasps from many people within the building. He ignored the demands for him to stop and immediately entered into the Hokage's office, where he found not only Tsunade but also Kakashi.

Naruto tightened his fists, attempting to contain his anger.

"Naruto, we were just discussing our plans on accessing you for our ranks.." Said Tsunade, somewhat angry for simply walking into the office without precaution. Kakashi could also see the anger Naruto was holding back from his body language, he really wanted to at least be able to talk to his student about his treatment towards him in his younger days.

"Then why don't we test my skill against Kakashi, it should be relatively interesting, don't you think, hehe?" Said Naruto wickedly. Kakashi frowned, he knew he would need to resolve this issue with his ex: student. Tsunade was about to decline Naruto's proposal but Kakashi cut in.

"Fine.." Said Kakashi, shocking both Naruto and Tsunade. Naruto smiled wickedly under his mask, this would be fun.

"Training ground 7, hehe.." Laughed Naruto, causing Tsunade to scowl, that laugh really could really be creepy. Naruto then jumped out of the window grinning under his mask.

"Kakashi, you know he wants revenge, on you, Sasuke and Sakura." Said Tsunade.

"I know, but I deserve it, I completely failed him.. and I failed Minato-sensei, i won't let that happen again. " Said Kakashi. Tsunade stayed silent for a little.

"We don't know how strong he is Kakashi.. be careful" Kakashi nodded in agreement. Tsunade had plenty of faith in Kakashi, he was one of the elite jonin in the village, and a possible candidate for the next hokage but they didn't have any information on his abilities

"I will.." Said Kakashi as he vanished in a swirl of leaves as he headed off to the training ground.

0o0

Kakashi arrived at their old training ground to see Naruto facing him, blonde hair blowing in the wind, while his mask covered his face. He held his needle blade in his hand. Unfortunately Kakashi didn't really know the full potential of the weapon nor Naruto's abilities with it, but he guessed he'd learn on the fly. He figured he could probably take Naruto without the sharingan, it wouldn't do much good even if he used it with the mist technique.

"Hehe, ready?" Said Naruto causing Kakashi to eye smiled.

"Aren't you a little feisty, I thought I told you to never rush into a battle." Said Kakashi, causing Naruto to smirk.

"I guess so Kakashi, one of the few things you taught me, unfortunately, I never really picked up on the trait, you never really enforced it seeing to how little you paid attention to me." Said Naruto coldly. Kakashi's eyes lowered in sadness at how he had indeed ignored Naruto. Naruto smirked at the visible pain in Kakashi's face and decided to begin, this would indeed be fun.

"Go!" Yelled Naruto as he fired Nuibari at Kakashi. Kakashi noticed it was going straight at him and simply side stepped the attack, not impressed with it. He immediately regretted the action as Naruto pulled the wire outward causing it to curve around going straight for Kakashi. Kakashi then ducked under the blade as it passed over him and flew into naruto's hand.

"Your pretty good with that Naruto… but not good enough" Said Kakashi as his clone in front of Naruto poofed away and Kakashi appeared behind him with a chidori pointed at his neck.

"Its over, now can we please ta.." Kakashi stopped his sentence as he noticed wires elevating from the ground and the Naruto in front of him poofed away, revealing it to be a shadow clone. The real Naruto sat perched in a tree, sharply pulling up wires of nuibari that were spread along the battlefield in vertical and horizontal lines.

"Long Sword Ninja Art: Earth Spider Sewing!" Shouted Naruto as wires began to compress all along the battle field. The goal of the technique was that the wires would cross over with such force that they would cut off the enemies feet, rendering them immobile.

Kakashi immediately lept into the air, barely managing to keep his feet attached to his body. Naruto wasn't planning on holding back. Kakashi was about to start going through hand seals when he saw Naruto going through the hand seals to one of Kakashi's least favorite techniques.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Technique!" Said Naruto as a thick mist distended upon the battle field. Kakashi remembered his fight with Zabuza and how effective the swordsman of the mist could be with silent killing. He only wondered if Naruto was as efficient at it. He then heard Naruto's high-pitched laugh echoing through the mist.

"Hehehe, brings back old times, eh Kakashi. Back when I though you guys actually cared about me… Unfortunately I'm not hear to dwell on the past, prepare to meet one of my most deadly attacks that I created. Trust me you'll love it, hehehe." Laughed Naruto wickedly as Kakashi grew nervous. He couldn't seek Naruto out and worst of all, with that blade of his Naruto wouldn't have to get anywhere near him.

"Ninja art: Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" Kakashi groaned, this wasn't going to be good at all.

"Long Sword Ninja Art: Raining Needle Web!" Yelled Naruto as the fifty clones who had surrounded Kakashi began firing their copies of nuibari at Kakashi. Some threw it straight at him, others threw them to the sky to attack him from above, and others attempted to curve the blade to attack from the side. Wires crossed over each other in the sky, making it seem as if a web was being formed above Kakashi as the deadly blades flew at Kakashi.

"Earth Style: Multiple Earth Wall!" Yelled Kakashi as four earth walls surrounded him, keeping him in a box as he heard the needles impale the sides of the wall. Kakashi was about to think of a counter attack but then heard Naruto say another technique which was all too familiar to him.

"Rasengan!" Yelled Naruto as the swirling ball of chakra in his hand slammed into one of the earth walls, completely destroying it. Kakashi stared at the masked Naruto. he had to admit, Naruto gave off an aura of dread and killer intent similar to that of Zabuza. Kakashi charged at Naruto and began engaging him in hand to hand combat, and was surprised to find that Naruto was not launching any attacks but was rather dodging all of his attacks with extreme ease. Naruto's slender formed allowed him to be much more flexible and he seemed to focus much more on speed and exhausting the enemy. After coming to the realization Kakashi lept back to avoid getting too tired.

"Hehe, having fun Kakashi? Well let me show you one of my personal favorite techniques!"

"Ninja Art: Black Rain!" Yelled Naruto as parts of the mist began turning into black clouds, confusing Kakashi. Kakashi figured he should probably avoid these clouds. But more and more of the mist turned black as soon the entire mist was black. Kakashi couldn't see anything in front of him now, all he could here was the wicked laughter of Naruto in the mist, causing him to become a little scared. Naruto was definitely not planning on holding back. The worst part was Kakashi hadn't even been given any time to attack. Kakashi then created two shadow clones who ran off into the black mist, trying to see what Naruto was doing. Kakashi waited patiently but soon felt the first one dispel as nuibari pierced through its heart. The second went down quickly as well with a needle through the neck. Kakashi then decided it was time to get serious, he removed his headband revealing his sharingan but saw it was also of little use. He then felt wet liquid drench him as the mist quickly cleared revealing the entire training ground to be drenched in oil including himself.

"Hehe, bye Kakashi!"

Naruto pulled out a needle wrapped with an explosive tag and fired it into the field drenched in oil. The oil all over the training ground erupted in flames and explosions scattered across the training ground. Kakashi cursed as he saw the flames flying towards him in all directions causing massives explosions. He ran through the hand signs for his multiple earth wall, this time creating 4 layers of the wall, attempting to save himself.

Training ground 7 was completely destroyed. All the trees were either on fire, or blown to pieces from the explosion. Across the grounds were large craters and there was no grass left anywhere the mist and then black rain had covered. The only thing remaining on the training ground were the last layer of Kakashi's multiple earth walls he created while he stood against one of them, blown back to it by the force of the explosions around him. He was lucky the last wall stood or else he could have died. ANBU immediately appeared at the training ground along with Tsunade who was in shock. Naruto had just destroyed an entire training ground. There was nothing standing, while smashed and on fire trees were scattered across the craters in the ground. Whatever technique Naruto used, it sure was deadly. Her attention then turned towards Kakashi who was now standing on top of one of his mud walls, obviously frowning under his mask at Naruto's last jutsu, and then there was Naruto, standing on the only small circular patch of grass left on the training field, simply staring at his one time sensei.

Tsunade began walking over to the masked Naruto, by this time multiple ninja, including some who were familiar to Naruto were looking on in horror at the man who had single handily obliterated an entire training field. Tsunade walked up to the masked Naruto and simply stared into the black eye slits of his mask. Naruto spoke first.

"Sorry Baa-chan, I guess I got a little carried away, hehe.." Laughed Naruto who turned his gaze towards all the ninja watching their discussion. Tsunade didn't know what to say, one second she saw regular mist, then black mist, then the largest explosion she'd ever seen. Whatever Naruto had done over the past 3 years had definitely made him powerful.

"A LIttle!" Yelled Tsunade.

"Don't worry Hokage-sama, we just sparring." Said Kakashi who eye smiled to cover up what he was actually thinking. Kakashi was extremely impressed with Naruto and guessed his skill far surpassed his own. If that battle continued he surely would have been defeated, or even killed.

"You destroyed the entire training field! Not to mention you nearly killed Kakashi!" Naruto stood still, perhaps he did go to far, he figured Kakashi didn't expect him to put up this much of a fight. Tsunade hated not being able to see Naruto's facial reaction. That mask made it seem as if he was just sending her a piercing glare.

"Listen Baa-chan, I'm sorry, I just had a lot of anger I needed to vent….. I've got to go think, I'll talk to you later today." Said Naruto who then vanished in a swirl of mist. Tsunade sighed, Naruto definitely changed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone, once again thank you for all the positive reviews and interest in the story. I'm getting a lot of good feedback and great ideas that will start being incorporated in the next chapter. I hope everyone enjoys the chapter, it was kind of a struggle to write but I managed to write it. Its been harder to write since I'm back at boarding school but I managed to get it done. I have a two week vacation starting in two days so expect some more chapters to this and possibly some of my other stories frequently these next 2 weeks. **

**So heres the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it! Ino and Naruto met in this chapter so hopefully everyone enjoys what I did in the chapter. I want this to be a pretty long story so it heir relationship will develop later on in the story. I really hope I didn't ruin anything for you readers and hopefully you enjoy it. If you have any questions or ideas fell free to message me or review.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I rally enjoy the feedback, mostly the positive but anything I need to improve on is definitely welcomed Thanks!**

* * *

Naruto had disappeared from the now obliterated training ground 7. He appeared in front of his apartment and contemplated what had just happened. He had just revealed one of his most deadly jutsu and was cursing himself for it. He had given too much information about his potential skill with that jutsu. At least the shinobi would probably no longer bother him due to fear of him. Naruto then began contemplating what he would do now. He didn't want to sit in his room and read anymore of Kushimaru's scrolls. He had read most of the scrolls in the three years and didn't really wish to continue reading them. He then thought back to what Shikamaru said about Ino. The least he could do was at least apologize. Naruto hopped onto his roof top and began jumping rooftop to rooftop, making his way towards the hospital. Naruto got to the main entrance to the hospital, once again drawing looks of terror and hate from civilians and leaf shinobi. He entered into the hospital and walked up to the receptionist who was lost in a magazine she was reading.

"Excuse me." Asked Naruto as the receptionist slowly lifted her head, only to lay eyes on the dreaded kiri ANBU mask that people had been talking about the past few days.

"Y..Y…Yes?" Asked the receptionist who was completely terrified. Naruto smirked under his mask at the visible terror in the young girl's face.

"Can I have the room number for Ino Yamanaka.." Asked Naruto as the receptionist continued to sure at his masked face, too scared to respond. Naruto sighed, he didn't want to scare the girl too much, after all she was just a receptionist.

"Listen, I'm not here to hurt or kill anyone, just give me the freaking room number, ok?" Asked Naruto in a slightly ticked off manner. The receptionist snapped out of her terrified trance enough to mutter out the room number.

"I..Its number 107" Said the receptionist.

"Thank you." Said Naruto who began walking down the hall towards Ino's room. The receptionist sighed, grateful that the masked man had finally left. He walked down the empty hallway until he saw the small room number sign to the side of the door. He stopped outside the door, wondering if he should really even bother stopping in to apologize, it's not like she knew who he was. Plus, it's not like he'd held a normal conversation, let alone apologize to someone in over three years. What was he suppose to say,' Sorry for using you as a hostage..' yeah that would go really well. She'd probably just want him to leave immediately, but he did tell Shikamaru he would apologize, and he at least owed the girl an apology. He stood outside the door for around five minutes until he finally built up enough courage to go in. He reached down and turned the grey door knob and slowly opened the door, attempting to make as little noise as possible. Naruto cautiously entered the room only to meet a pair of sky blue eyes.

Ino's years of shinobi training had heightened her senses to the point where she could hear things that noble civilians couldn't. This allowed her to hear the door knob turn quietly as she opened her eyes to the base of the door to see black shinobi sandals. Ino had attempted to go back to sleep but the years of shinobi training had caused her to often react to the slightest bit of sounds. He eyes traveled up the person's well toned but slightly skiing body. She saw the grey arm guards, then…bandages? Finally, her eyes landed upon the kiri hunter nin mask that had filled her thoughts throughout her past couple of days in the hospital. She began to tremble a little at the sight of the man who had both held her as a hostage but also saved her life. Ino had thought a lot about her previous mission with Sasuke and Sakura and figured that the only possible way she could have returned safely to the village along with Sasuke and Sakura was if this masked swordsman saved her. She didn't know if she should be angry, thankful or terrified of the masked shinobi in front of her.

"W..What are you doing here?" Questioned Ino who had now sat up in her bed. She was definitely a little scared of the swordsman who had managed to defeat that many elite kiri shinobi.

Naruto didn't know what to do. Ino looked terrified of him, and rightfully so. He did hold her hostage… Naruto began scratching the back of his head awkwardly, not exactly knowing what to do. The most disturbing thing for naruto was that he was feeling something he hadn't dealt with for years, guilt. The scared look on Naruto made him feel terrible, knowing that he had made her feel that bad. Naruto then mustered enough courage to finally talk to the petrified girl.

"Well… I'm kind of hear to…to apologize for you know… for taking you hostage and all.." Said Naruto in a low and timid tone. Ino, who had been slightly trembling was now staring at the masked man with a look of shock on her face. She had no clue what the man wanted when he walked in but she definitely didn't expect an apology. She could also hardly believe how timid he was acting. Someone as powerful as him should be confident when they speak but he was pausing between sentences and was barely talking loud enough to be heard.

"Your sorry?" Asked Ino in a confused manner, still not fully grasping what was going on. Naruto sighed, he knew he shouldn't have done this but it was too late to simply leave now.

"Well.. your teammate… Shikamaru kind of told me that I should apologize to you." This only confused Ino more. She remembered how weird Shikamaru acted when he was in her room. If he talked to this masked guy, then there was a high probability that he was acting that way because of this man. Ino looked over the man's features again, and then noticed the sunny blonde hair. The blonde his was similar to that of the fourth hokage's. Ino thought that the hair looked familiar but then her attention returned to what he had said. The man who had taken her hostage, there was no way he was going to simply forgive him. He had essentially threatened to kill her. Ino had also thought about the man's possible motives but simply had no idea what they were. If he was planning on using her as a hostage he wouldn't have simply returned her, and he definitely wouldn't be standing in front of her. Regardless, she was going to make him sorry for holding Ino Yamanaka hostage, but she also had to be careful what she said. He was obviously stronger than her. She was about to yell at the man but he then took out his needle like sword. It was weird-looking but it was obviously deadly, and effective. She gulped at the sight of the weapon as the man began twirling the blade in his right hand as the black eye slits of his mask pierced into her. Ino tried to muster up her courage to yell at him but figured it would probably be best not to yell at him.

"D..Do you expect me too j..just forgive you?" Asked Ino with slight stutters in her sentence due to her fear of the man but Naruto could hear the anger in her voice. Naruto sighed again, this was going to be such a bother.

"Look Ino, I really don't expect you to forgive me, I'm just apologizing, I had my reasons for what I did.." Naruto spoke fluidly, surprising both Ino and himself somewhat. She hadn't heard him speak fluidly since he started talking to her, but his tone slightly angered her. He was apologizing to her but really didn't seem to care if she forgave him or not. Ino also was somewhat curious at how this masked man had called her by her first name without any hesitation or approval from her to call her that. It was almost as if he knew her. She figured her years of being teammates with Shikamaru were paying off as Ino began to connect information about the masked swordsman as well. If he didn't know who she was there would be no reason for him to come apologize. Ino continued to stare at the man's blonde hair, ignoring the intimidating mask he wore. She knew she recognized that hair from somewhere, she just couldn't remember who it was exactly.

Naruto saw the somewhat angered reaction but then her facial expression to that of confusion or deep thought. Naruto inwardly slapped himself for calling her by her name. His hair was already a slight give away, if she was anywhere closet as smart as Shikamaru was she would have found out by now. He needed to leave now or yet another person would know who he was.

"Well, this hasn't really gone very well, so I'll leave you alone, I hope you feel better.." Said Naruto as he walked over to the door and began to turn the grey door knob, trying to get out of there as fast as possible. He really didn't want her to figure out who he was. As he was about to open the door he heard Ino mumble the one word he didn't want to hear, his name.

"Y..your Naruto…. aren't you.." Said Ino in a somewhat questioning manner, but she was pretty sure it was him. The boy who had left the village for an almost unknown reason after fighting so hard to bring back his friend who had left. Naruto froze in his tracks. This is the exact reason why he didn't want to do this, he really didn't want anyone else to realize who he was. He also didn't know if Ino would run off and tell anyone. He slowly turned his head to see Ino's mouth slightly open, looking as if she'd seen a ghost. The image of a young energetic boy with spiky blonde hair was played over and over again in her mind as she looked at a masked Naruto with that same spiky blonde hair, but it now resembled that of the fourth Hokage's.

Naruto turned completely around to face her sitting began twirling nuibari again as Ino's eyes began staring at the spinning needle until the display was abruptly ended by it being slammed into the tile floor. Ino jumped at the small display of force as the needle had pierced into the tile floor. He really didn't want to scare her but he couldn't risk her telling anyone who he didn't want to know, so intimidation would be the only solution, and he was definitely pretty good at it.

"Hehe, your teams pretty smart, huh, guess Shikamaru rubbed off on you." Said Naruto, as Ino continued to stare at him until she spoke up. There were so many things she could ask or say to the blonde haired boy, but for some reason she felt a strange urge to go hug the boy who had gone missing for the past three-year but knew otherwise. He had obviously changed a great deal since their genin days. The cheerful and joking blonde haired boy who never gave up was gone, and replaced by an extremely powerful, ruthless and cold teenage boy, one that could do things that even Sasuke couldn't.

"Your back.." Whispered Ino as she considered to stare into the black eye slits of the mask, remembering the light blue eyes that Naruto had. Naruto then began to speak.

"I know that taking you hostage was not necessarily a kind thing to do…. but as I said earlier I have my reasons… but now you know a very important secret. I really wouldn't want to have to make anyone… disappear if you told them." Said Naruto as Ino began to realize what he was talking about. She knew who he was, and he obviously wanted to keep it a secret, but why? She was also somewhat shocked at the threat he was making, that wasn't like the old Naruto at all.

"W..Why are you hiding who you are, everyone missed you?" Said Ino. Naruto's anger began to raise a little at this statement. No one ever cared for him when he was around, the whole village probably had a week-long party when they found out he was gone.

"Oh really? Well I really don't believe that considering the fact that almost the whole village hated me when I was here!" Screamed Naruto, causing Ino to shutter a little at his aggressive tone. Naruto never got angry, even when Sakura pummeled him and Sasuke insulted him, he never really lost his cool. He definitely had changed a lot.

"Ok Naruto calm down! I haven't done anything to you, you're the one who took me hostage!" Yelled Ino, slightly pissed off that despite the fact that he took her hostage he was still yelling at her!

Naruto calmed down a little after her statement, she was right, he had no right to yell at her. After all, she hadn't been too mean to him during their genin days. Back when they were in the academy she was always a fan girl and he didn't know if she still was. She did yell at him to shut up a lot because he insulted Sasuke but that still wasn't that bad, especially since he rarely saw her after they graduated. There was also that week when he was in the hospital after they got Sasuke back when she was the person who visited him the most.

"I..I'm sorry, I guess I got carried away, but I better get going…" Said Naruto. This got Ino's attention, she didn't want him to leave. There were so many things that she wanted to ask him. What caused him to leave, where he was, what he had done, why had his personality changed, why did he have that sword and mask? Naruto headed towards the door to leave. Ino was going to protest again until the door swung open, but not because of Naruto.

Sakura had finally been omitted from the hospital. She had been ordered to rest a lot and no missions for a week due to her suffering from chakra exhaustion. hers wasn't nearly as bad as Ino who had nearly died from severe chakra exhaustion or Sasuke who had physical wounds and chakra exhaustion. She had already checked up on her crush, Sasuke, but he was asleep and she didn't want to wake him up. She had multiple dreams of the masked swordsman who had gruesomely saved them from the kiri nin. To say she was intimidated by the man would be an understatement. However, she had heard that the man had kidnapped Ino, which got her a little angry. She still didn't like Ino very much, despite the fact that she had told her she was no longer trying to get with Sasuke, she still had her doubts. This came about a year after Naruto left and since that day she had barely taken any interest in any guys. She shrugged as she continued to walk down the hall to Ino's room. She figured she might as well see how she was doing. She stood outside the door and heard two people talking and then walked into the room, only to come face to face with the same man who had plagued her dreams with gruesome nightmares.

Naruto looked straight at his ex-teammate, gritting his teeth under his mask his hand tightened its hold around nuibari, trying his hardest to not stab his sword through the girl's heart. All of his anger was beginning to swell up again, as he stared at Sakura. She had a terrified look on her face, causing Naruto grin wickedly under his mask, he couldn't do anything to her physically but he would definitely attempted to mess with her mentally.

Ino saw Naruto tighten his grip on his weapon, realizing that he definitely didn't want to be near Sakura. Ino saw the terrified look on Sakura's face, leading her to believe she had definitely missed much of the battle. She had never seen Sakura anywhere close to as terrified as she looked at that moment.

Sakura stared at the black slits of the mask, she saw a small red light glow under the mask but it quickly disappeared. She tried to back away and run, or scream for someone, but it was if she was paralyzed in fear. None of her muscles would work, and she was even having trouble breathing.

"Hehe, look who it is!" Said Naruto as he began to use his high-pitched laugh, causing both girls to shiver. Ino couldn't even begin to understand why Naruto had gone through such a huge change. That laugh he could produce was simply terrifying. Ino looked at Sakura and could tell she was in an even worse state. She was shaking unlike anything she'd ever seen.

"W..Wh..What are y..you doing h..here.." Said Sakura in a mumbled sentence, unable to produce a clear sentence due to her shaking. Sakura had seen this man's killing spree against the kiri nin and it made her sick to even think about.

"You didn't want to see me again? I thought I'd get a slight thank you, hehe." Said Naruto, laughing maniacally. Sakura was shocked by this, why would she ever give this.. this monster a thank you.

"Wh..Why would.. I give you a t..thnk you.." Muttered Sakura causing the man the laugh even louder.

"HEHE, WHY?! Hmmm, let me think… Oh yeah maybe because I SAVED YOUR LIFE YOU IDIOT!" Yelled Naruto causing Sakura too stumble back out of the door way until she found her self leaning against a wall on the opposite side of Ino's room. Ino was eve more shocked, not only was Naruto acting insane, but he was doing it towards none other then his beloved Sakura, the girl he was obsessed with for around 4 years! Before Naruto exited the room he turned his face towards Ino's and saw the shocked and somewhat terrified face she had. For some reason he felt terrible for being the cause of her terrified state.

"I'm sorry you had to see that Ino…" Said Naruto in a quiet tone, but loud enough for Ino to hear. It took a couple of seconds for her to respond due to her state of shock.

"Wh..What happened to you?" Asked Ino as Naruto's black eye slits continued to stare at her. Naruto was somewhat offended by the words she said but he knew she was right. He hd changed from his old stupid and childish self. he was now a powerful and feared shinobi. it had its perks but he didn't enjoy this part of the role he was playing, people thinking he was a monster. he hated that word as a child, he was always called one but he never acted like it. He guessed he was finally acting like they thought he did, and he didn't really like proving them right. However, they drove him to be the way he was, they beat and insulted him when he was six, and life sure didn't get easier from there.

"One day Ino… you'll find out why I changed. Not you, not anyone in this entire village knows what its like to be me. One day… you'll hear what I went through, the memories and actions that have haunted me my entire life. None of yours, nor anyone in their village's problems can even compare to what I've felt with for my entire life. When you find this out, then you will understand what happened to me.." Said Naruto. Ino took in everything the boy said. She heard pain and sadness in his voice, something she had never heard out of him her entire time of knowing him. She wished she could see under that mask, just to look at the emotion on his face. From what he had just said, his life must have been terrible, but she never saw it, nor did anyone. He sure as hell didn't show when he was a genin. Her thoughts were interrupted when Naruto spoke one last time.

"I'll stop wasting your time, I just terrify you and that's something you don't completely deserve. As I said earlier, I know I don't deserve any favors from you, but please… don't tell anyone…" Said Naruto as he walked out of the door, leaving a shocked, slightly scared, and completely confused Ino Yamanaka sitting in her hospital bed.

Naruto walked out of the door to see a still trembling Sakura leaning against a wall, eyes wide with shock and face filled with terror. Naruto didn't say anything to her, nor did he even stop to acknowledge her, he just walked into the hallway and took a left down the hallway, making his way towards the exit of the hospital.

Naruto exited the hospital, walking into the darkness of the Konoha night. He lept onto a rooftop and began darting back to his small apartment. One thought and one thought only went through his mind and he couldn't understand why. it wasn't anger at his female ex-teammate who he despised, nor was his previous fight with Kakashi. It was just the frightened look that was present on Ino's face throughout much of their conversation. That frightened look plagued his dreams throughout the night. For some reason that was unknown to him, he just wanted to make that scared look vanish from her face. It was as if it didn't fit her, she needed to be smiling, not trembling or being scared, it just wasn't right in Naruto's mind. The thing that hurt him the most was the fact that he had put that look on her face.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone, so heres the next chapter! Once again, thank you for all the views and great reviews to the story, I really appreciate it. During this chapter Naruto gets a new summon, and I personally really like the creature I'm using. I think it fits this Naruto perfectly and I hope many of you agree. I also received a couple complaints about my grammar, I apologize for sometimes not proof reading as thoroughly as I can but most of the time I publish really late and I'm kinda tired, like this one, 4 am! But I will definitely try to improve that and I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I would also really love some more reviews if possible. I know quite bait of people read this story and I would love it if you wouldn't mind spending that extra minute or two just to comment on my work, it real means a lot, so heres the next chapter!**

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Naruto woke up the next morning at around nine a.m. He recalled the events of yesterday, his fight with Kakashi and his interaction with Ino. He also remembered seeing Sakura which slightly angered but he quickly forgot about it, he couldn't keep loosing his cool at the simple thought of his old team. The other thing on his mind was that he had no clue what he was going to do today. He had been on a vigorous training schedule while away in Kushimaru's cave but he really couldn't really go all out in Konoha or he'd reveal more of his skills, which he really didn't want to do. He had decided it had been long enough since he had read any scrolls from Kushimaru so he decided to read through some more.

Typically the scrolls Naruto read contained advice and tips on using nuibari. Although Naruto still had more to learn with regards to nuibari, he sometimes got board reading about it. He was never the type of guy who would read anything when he was younger, in fact he despised it. It took ridiculous amounts of concentration to memorize or remember the information present in Kushimaru's scrolls, especially since he was basically teaching himself. There was no one teaching Naruto to use nuibari, he learned everything he knew from reading those scrolls for hours upon hours. Naruto didn't even know how he managed to read so many scrolls while he was away in Kushimaru's cave, but it paid off. He was now extremely proficient in using nuibari and was proud of it.

While sorting through Kushimaru's scrolls while in his cave, he noticed that there was one shelf of scrolls that had nothing to do with nuibari. Naruto didn't spend much time reading these scrolls due to him mainly focusing on the ones that would help him in learning to use nuibari. He did read one or two of them, and these scrolls contained the various water ninjutsu that Naruto knew. Naruto guessed there were around 20 scrolls on that shelf and he had read around 2 of them so when he was packing things in the cave up before he left he sealed the ones he hadn't read in a specific sealing scroll. He guessed that they probably contained other various water based ninjutsu.

Naruto walked into his closet where he had his various sealing scrolls and found the one where the remaining scrolls from that shelf was. Naruto then walked back to his bed and sat down on the edge of the bed. He pumped chakra into the sealing scroll, causing around 18 scrolls to fall onto the ground. Naruto looked over all of them, dreading the fact that he would have to read again until he noticed something, one of the scrolls was considerably larger than the others. It looked familiar to Naruto, and then it hit Naruto, it was a summoning scroll.

Naruto had been a previous summoner of toads before he left the village. While in Kushimaru's cave he had tried to summon a toad multiple times. He went through the signs over and over again but still nothing happened. It finally hit Naruto that for some reason he was unable to summon any toads. For a couple weeks Naruto pondered why this was happening until he remembered some vital information. The Toads were a summon that was loyal to Konoha. Since Naruto abandoned the village, his contract with the toads must have been terminated. This saddened Naruto since summoning was one of his strongest abilities. The ability to summon an ally in battle was sometimes crucial. He remembered how important Gamabunta was when fighting Gaara. Without Gamabunta Naruto would be dead now. Naruto got over this quickly though while in the cave and the subject hadn't really been on his mind up until now.

From what he had read about Kushimaru, he didn't use any summons so he figured Kushimaru must have received or taken the scroll from someone. Naruto hesitantly picked up the scroll an opened it up. At the top of the scroll read _Clam Summoning Scroll._ Naruto continued to read and only saw one signature on the scroll, signifying that only one person had ever used this summon. Naruto thought about the ability to summon once again and figured it certainly couldn't hurt., but he didn't know how a clam would benefit him in combat. However, it wouldn't hurt to try summing the creature, plus it could potentially add another element to his arsenal of attacks. Naruto quickly decided that using the clams as summons couldn't hurt. Now the only issue would be whether or not he would be accepted by the summons.

Naruto realized he probably shouldn't pump chakra into the summoning scroll in his apartment, if the summon was too big it would destroy the apartment. Naruto left his apartment, making sure he had his mask, nuibari and the new summoning scroll as he made his way to one of the most distant training ground he could find. If the clam summon did accept him, he didn't want anyone knowing he had this ability. It would be best if it was a surprise for whoever he was fighting him. Naruto still didn't want people knowing his full arsenal of techniques, especially the Uchiha. He definitely planned in having a rematch with the last Uchiha, but that would come eventually, he had already caused enough chaos in the village the past couple days. The council would probably summon him soon to talk with him. Tsunade had full power of the shinobi force and who could join it, but the council also held a considerable amount of power. If they didn't want Naruto being a shinobi, they could make life very difficult for Tsunade.

Naruto soon got to the most discreet training ground he could find. It was far away from the center of the village and a considerable distance from the more convenient training grounds that were only a short distance from the center of the village. Naruto then sat down on the ground and opened the scroll. Naruto then pumped a small amount of chakra into the scroll causing a poofing sound to be heard, indicating that something had been summoned.

Naruto summoned 40 shadow clones to surround the training ground to make sure no one was spying on him. The smoke from the summoning cleared, revealing a giant clam. The clam had the mist logo painted on its shell. Naruto was slightly confused because although the clam was large….. it was still just an ordinary clam. It had no sword like Gamabunta, and he doubted the clam could speak, after all it was just a shell. Then the clam's mouth slowly opened revealing two large siphons. All of a sudden the siphons began emitting some strange type of haze. It definitely wasn't anything similar to actual mist as Naruto had no control of it. Naruto took out nuibari, thinking that the creature was probably trying to test the him.

Naruto through nuibari at the giant clam, attempting to at least test how much damage could be dealt with his blade, but to his surprise the blade seemed to go straight through the clam. The blade continued to soar through the air, not making contact with anything, causing Naruto to pull the wire to his blade back, returning the legendary sword to his hand. Naruto was extremely confused by this, there was definitely a huge clam in front of him. The clam probably couldn't move since it had no limbs, and if it some how could, it definitely wouldn't be able to do so discretely or quickly. Naruto summoned two clones who both charged at the clam. They both got to point blank range until they lunged their swords into the image of the clam, only to find once again that their blades simply went through clam. Naruto then dispelled both clones, trying to think of an answer to this strange situation he was in.

Naruto thought for a couple of seconds and figured that maybe physical attacks wouldn't but maybe ninjutsu would. Naruto went through some hand signs before activating his next jutsu, one of his relatively powerful ones.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Said Naruto as water shot out from in front of Naruto in the shape of a dragon and headed straight for the image of the clam, only to find that this also went straight through the creature until crashing into the woods surrounding the field, destroying a large amount of trees due to the force of the jutsu. Naruto gritted his teeth, what the hell was going on!

Naruto continued thinking about what had happened since he saw the clam until he remembered the clam had emitted some type of haze from its siphons. 'Its gotta be an illusion!' thought Naruto as he began to think of a way to find where the actual clam was. He didn't know any sensory techniques which put him at a huge disadvantage. An idea then hit Naruto. He may not be able to sense its chakra but he could find it in his own way.

Naruto summoned around 200 shadow clones, the most he had summoned in a long time and it drained him a little. The clones spread out in a huge circle around the exterior of the training ground. He then activated his next jutsu as all the clones took out their nuibaris and prepared to throw them.

"Longsword Ninja Art: Raining Needle Web!" Yelled Naruto as his two nudged clones threw their nuibaris in different directions until they impacted different locations along the training field. Naruto then looked at all the wires that were present along the field. Most of the wires from the clones of the blade would collapse to the ground as his clones weren't pulling the wires tightly. Any wire that wasn't laying on the ground would be resting on something, and that would have to be the clam. Naruto looked around and saw two wires that were seemingly floating in air. Naruto ran towards the two wires that were resting in what seemed like midair and activated a rasengan in his right hand. Naruto slowed his pace as he walked towards the vicinity of where he guessed the clam was and stopped, signifying that he had found the clam and could potentially defeat it.

The giant clam noticed the masked figure who had summoned it walking towards him with a swirling mass of chakra in his hand. It was definitely rather impressed with the boy's creativity. It had only had one previous summoner ever and that was the Second Mizukage. The clam definitely demanded that the people who summoned him were highly skilled. A couple of people prior to this boy tried to be allowed to summon it however, they failed miserably in attempting to see through the clam's illusion. The clam would poof out of existence when in the presence of these people, none of them came even close in skill to the Second Mizukage and he doubted anyone ever would, until now. Sure the boy didn't actually sense him but he had come up with a very clever way of finding it. The clam hadn't had anyone find it in any form of combat since that pesky Tsuchikage Mu found him in battle during the Mizukage's final battle which resulted in the death of both the Tsuchikage and Mizukage. This boy definitely showed promise, especially with that strange weapon he used, not to mention a huge amount of chakra reserves.

It was true that the giant clam couldn't see, after all it had no eyes. However the mirages it exerted contained chakra in it, which allowed for the creation of the mirages. With the chakra present in the haze that it emitted, it was able to sense where each shinobi was and even types of weapons and jutsu the enemy were using. However, the clam's main problem was it couldn't avoid any attack since it also didn't have any limbs but it was also extremely sturdy, capable of taking powerful blows on its shell and still be able to continue to battling. The clam decided that this boy was definitely worthy to become its next summoner however, there was the issue that this boy wasn't a kiri shinobi. The clam was extremely comfortable in Kirigakure's moist climate and could tell when it wasn't there. Since this boy was obviously summoning him, he clearly wasn't a kiri shinobi. The clam was loyal to kiri due to the fact that his previous summoner who he was very fond of was from there, however he was dead now and this boy was clearly a worthy predecessor to the Second Mizukage. Now that the Mizukage was dead, he could be summoned by anyone from any region as long as it approved of the summoner. After all its not like it controlled where its summoning scroll went.

Naruto looked on as the mirage cleared, revealing the giant white clam with black rings going around the top of the shell. Naruto really didn't know what to do now. He guessed he had passed the clam's test…. but the thing couldn't talk. This would be an issue since he didn't know any of its abilities and he hadn't even signed a summoning contract yet, he had just summoned the clam by pumping chakra into the scroll he had. While these thoughts ran through his head, two scrolls popped out of the clams two siphons. Naruto picked it up as the clam's shell closed again as it poofed out of existence. Naruto was slightly confused at this but picked up both scrolls. One was larger then the other, and he picked it up and opened it. He became elated when he read the words at the top, _Summoning Contract. _Naruto look down on the list of names present on the contract. He could only see one but couldn't quite read the hand writing since it was smeared in blood, whoever he was must have had terrible hand writing. Naruto bit his finger, just like he use to when summoning toads and wrote his name in blood on the contract, signifying that he was the new wielder to the Clam Contract. The scroll had a sling over it, similar to the one Jiraya had for the toads. Naruto slung it over his shoulder. Naruto then picked up the smaller scroll and opened it. It read _Giant Clam Information _in bold at the top of the scroll. Naruto began reading the scroll which he figured would give information on the strange clam that he could now summon.

_To whoever was strong enough to be deemed worthy to summon the giant clam, I am the Second Mizukage and proud descendent of the Hozuki clan in Kirigakure. Whoever is reading this will be the next summoner of the Giant Clam who has greatly aided me in combat during my life. If someone is reading this, I will be dead and you will be taking up the ability to summon this great creature. I know you might be relatively hesitant to summon a creature who can't move or talk, but its abilities are just as useful as any summon's and if used correctly, can even be more deadly. As you have probably witnessed, the clam emits a weird haze out of its siphons. This haze creates a genjutsu that displays mirages to your enemy of both you and the clam. This hides your location and the clam's. These mirages prevent the clam's immobility from becoming a hinderance in combat as most enemies won't be able to sense it. Only extremely gifted sensors can find the clam when in this state, even Konoha's byakugan fails to find the clam when the mirages activate. These mirages provide great distractions. It can give you time to rest or escape, but more importantly, it allows you to launch sneak attacks in the haze since the enemy can only see the mirage of you. I hope this information is helpful to the next summoner because its the only pre hand knowledge you can get since the clam can't speak. As I stated earlier the Giant Clam is extremely useful in combat and I hope you continue to make its legacy grow during your lifetime. _

Naruto finished reading the scroll and took in all the information he had gathered. He was a slight bit concerned before reading this scroll about having a summon that couldn't speak or move, however this scroll definitely put all of his worries at rest If the Second Mizukage used this summon, then there was no way it was a hinderance. Based off of what the scroll said, the clam's abilities suited him perfectly. The mirages allowed him to make silent and lethal surprise attacks on enemies with nuibari while they were distracted by the mirages. Sure Naruto would need some time to practice with his new summon but from the information he had just gathered, his new summon had increase his overall power a great deal. The clam provided with so many new possibilities for jutsu and use of nuibari. Naruto smiled under his mask as he placed the smaller scroll in his pocket as he began his walk back to his apartment. he dispelled the 40 clones he had created to check for anyone spying on him and was happy to see that the clones hadn't spotted anyone following him.

Naruto made his way back to the center of the village within 30 minutes of walking. The training ground was a considerable distance from his the main part of the village. Naruto walked down the busy street, ignoring the stares and whispers he saw and heard along the street. He was too entranced in thought about what had happened to today. It was now around 3 o'clock and he was sure he now had nothing to do. He was done training for the day after his encounter with his new summon. He thought back to his childhood days and what he use to do. He remembered all the pranks he pulled to simply get attention. He shook his head slightly at the though of how immature he was when he was younger. Desperately seeking spiral and attention from people who would clearly never give it to him. There were the few people who were nice to him who were older. He remembered Teuchi and Ayame from the ramen stand and Iruka who were some of the few people who were always nice to him despite what was sealed within him. Naruto's thoughts turned to ramen, which he hadn't had in over 3 years. Sure he didn't eat anywhere close to what he use too and had completely changed his diet while he was away, but that didn't erase his apparent obsession with the food. His mouth began to water under his mask at the thought of his favorite food that he hadn't had in years. he decided he would have that for dinner tonight. He couldn't believe that he hadn't gotten ramen since he'd arrived in the village.

Naruto continued to walk down the main street of Konoha, completely ignoring any stares or comments from the villagers. Most of the civilians were still terrified of him. They had heard of his outburst at one civilian over a comment about Sasuke Uchiha and definitely didn't want to piss the man off. Many shinobi had grown even more scared of the mysterious masked man after news of his fight with Kakashi. News of him nearly killing Kakashi while destroying the entire truing ground 7 struck fear into many shin obi's hearts. Anyone who could nearly kill Kakashi and destroy an entire training ground was not someone to mess with, regardless of what they had done previously to piss the off. If they got in a fight with that man, chances are they would most likely be killed.

Naruto made his way back to his apartment and walked up the stairs and unlocked the door to get into his small room. He removed his clothes and entered his bathroom. He still kept his mask on incase anyone was spying on him that he didn't notice. Naruto took long shower and put on a clean set of his new choice in clothes. Naruto then laid down in his bed, somewhat tired from the day and from his return to Konoha as a whole. It was now around four o'clock and he set an alarm for six.

Naruto slept for two hours. He had fallen asleep rather quickly and felt relatively refreshed after his short nap. He cited his apartment and began his walk towards his one time favorite restaurant. He wondered what Teuchi and Ayame made of his departure. They were some of the nicest people to him as a child, and the only restaurant who would serve him any food. Naruto had quickly made his way to Ichiraku's and his mouth was watering once again at the thought of having his favorite food once again. Naruto pushed the familiar white curtains that shielded the outside of the outside of the restaurant from the customers, however his mood was quickly destroyed at the sight of who was sitting in front of him. A pink haired kunoichi and a raven haired boy sat at two stools enjoying ramen. Sasuke was rapped in tons of bandages around his torso and right shoulder but was still managing to move both arms. Naruto glared under his mask at the backside of the two figures. Naruto continued to stare at their backside until Teuchi called out to him in a timid and questioning way.

"C..Can I help you sir?" Asked Teuchi who was obviously rather scared of his new apparent customer who he had heard rumors about. Sasuke turned his head slightly to see who the cook was talking two, only to lay on eyes of the person he wanted to see least in the entire village, the insane masked swordsman who had apparently saved his life.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone, not to damper anyones mood, but before I continue, I'd just like to ask everyone to keep their minds and prayers focused on the victims and families of the school shooting in Newtown Connecticut. It was a truly disgusting and atrocious event, and I hope that anyone who has lossed a loved one in this terrible crime the best of luck in coping with their loss.**

**So here is the next chapter, I'm on winter break so I'm publishing chapters quicker now. After this chapter there will be more training and action so for those of you who have wanted to see him develope new jutsu or jutsu ideas, that will be in the next chapter. I could always use ideas on new jutsu to use as there aren't really any related to nuibari so any and all ideas are welcomed. Also, PLEASE REVIEW! I didn't get quite as many reviews as I would have liked after my last chapter so hopefully I'll get some more with this chapter, so read on!**

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Sasuke had finally been released from the hospital. He despised being in the hospital, there was absolutely nothing to do except to talk to his one actual visitor. Sure Kakashi and Tsunade checked up on him but for some reason they didn't seem really focused on him but rather on his mission. Sasuke preferred not to remember his latest mission in which he, Sasuke Uchiha had been rescued by some psychopath. Sasuke was one of the most promising and skilled shinobi in Konoha, respected and honored by everyone. The whole village knew who he was and how great he was, and they didn't mind letting him know it. Everyone referred to him as 'Lord Uchiha' with an exception of the rest of the rookie 9 and Team Gai, who rarely talked to him. His superiors refered to him as Sasuke, and many respected him for his success in the field, completing almost every mission without problems, leading to his promotion to jonin. This really didn't help Sasuke's already large ego as he felt he was superior to everyone in the village. However, Sasuke's ego took a huge hit with his latest mission. He was basically useless, him, the last Uchiha couldn't save himself or his team and needed help from some wandering and homicidal maniac.

Sasuke had also gotten a lot of attention for all he had been through in his life. Many felt sorry for what he had gone through, and rightfully so. Sasuke watched his older brother slaughtered his entire clan, including his parents and that was one of the worst possible things too experience in a lifetime. Now based off this event it would be fair to say Sasuke had experienced a great deal of blood shed in his life, not to mention his life as a shinobi. Sasuke had dealt with and seen gruesome and terrible things throughout his life. Sasuke's older brother, Itachi had probably committed the most gruesome event he'd seen and it haunted him his entire life. Witnessing his clan killed before his eyes by his older brother caused Sasuke to become a slight bit grief-stricken but mostly angry. However, throughout his life he had never ben 'scared' of Itachi, nor had he had nightmares about Itachi himself, but rather the massacre itself. Never before had Sasuke actually been scared of someone before. This is why it was so absurd for him to be scared of a pesky masked swordsman. Sasuke had encounters with two S ranked criminals, being Itachi and Orochimaru on multiple occasions and fought countless other feared shinobi such as the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza, so why was it that this masked man-made him so scared?

Sasuke's thoughts had often traveled to the masked swordsman during his time in the hospital, despite his wanting to avoid the most recent additions to his memory. As stated earlier, Sasuke had seen people commit terrible crimes and do terrible things. However, Sasuke had never seen anyone in his entire life seem to revel in killing as much as this man did. Sure, Itachi eradicated his entire clan, but even Sasuke could tell he wasn't enjoying what he was doing. This masked swordsman had apparently reveled in his killing, his laughing seemed to highly support that claim. In fact, Sasuke couldn't even call the man a swordsman, he didn't use any type of sword technique he had ever seen, he was a sewer. He actually sewed his enemies together into a bundle of bodies, one of the most inhumane things Sasuke had ever seen. The man's blade pierced through everything with ease, vital spot after vital spot was penetrated by the needle blade, and with the pull of a wire, the man maneuvered the bodies into one huge bundle of bodies. One of the most scarring things about this particular event was that Sasuke couldn't see any of it, all he heard were those blood retching screams of pure terror and dread. When Sasuke saw the bundle of bodies attached by wire, he nearly threw up. The man's next technique in which he seemingly crucified his enemies was even more gruesome. Sasuke had heard of methods of torture and painful ways to die, but nothing he'd heard of or seen compared to the absolute cruelty of the action the man committed. The shinobi world was unforgiving and gruesome, but Sasuke didn't believe anyone in the world would look upon this in a positive light in any fashion.

Images of the complete slaughter of the kiri nin played continuously through Sasuke's mind while in the hospital. The man's laugh echoed in his mind with seemingly no end, while Sasuke seemed to experience the man's excruciatingly painful techniques first hand as he found himself being crucified with wire by the man in many of his nightmares. Sasuke felt the needle blade enter in and out of him repeatedly throughout his dreams while listening to the masked man's psychotic laughter, often causing him to wonder if he was under the masked shinobi's genjutsu, only to awake to the sight of an ordinary hospital room.

Sakura visited his room multiple times while he was in the hospital and although he acted as if he didn't care if she was there, he was actually extremely relieved have someone there with him. Her constant attempts at conversation which he shot down with short one word answers made him feel relieved that he wasn't alone, he no longer had to deal with the nightmares or be plagued by the thoughts of this masked man.

Sasuke had been released from the hospital today, and of course Sakura was there to escort him home. Sakura signed him out of the hospital despite Sasuke's still visible injuries. Sasuke had taken two kunai, one in the shoulder and on in his stomach. Luckily the wound to the stomach area hadn't hit any vital organs. Sasuke was still suffering from severe chakra exhaustion and blood loss. Sasuke was in no condition to do any training or go on missions but he was presumed healthy enough to return home and ordered to not do anything rigorous. While the two were walking towards the Uchiha complex Sakura asked if Sasuke wanted to go to Ichirakus.

Sasuke and Sakura had both begun going to Ichirakus about a year after Naruto's departure from the village. Sakura had thought of the idea around the time of Naruto's anniversary of departure from the village. This was around the time that both had began feeling somewhat guilty for the blonde boy's sudden exit from Konoha. Neither were big fans of the restaurant but after one or two visits the two teammates began to take a liking for it and made it a monthly tradition as a way to remember their lost teammate. The restaurant's owner and his daughter, Teuchi and Ayame were always somewhat hostile towards the two. They had seen the way the two treated Naruto and even called the two out as the reason for his departure during one of Sasuke and Sakura's meals there. Despite the rather cruel treatment from the two owners, Sasuke and Sakura continued to go as a way to mourn the loss of their teammate. Sasuke refused to be insulted about pretty much anything in his life, he never felt vulnerable or really felt saddened by anything besides his clan's massacre. The only event that he took criticism for was Naruto's departure. He remembered the pain he inflicted upon his one time best friend. Constantly insulting him and looking down upon him, treating him as if he were nothing. Sasuke never understood the blonde boys terrible life until he asked Kakashi about the red chakra cloak he saw when fighting Naruto. Now that Sasuke had seen the fox in combat, Kakashi felt obligated to tell his student about Naruto's burden.

Kakashi explained that Naruto was the jinchuriki for the nine tailed fox that had attacked their village all those years ago. Sasuke remembered learning about jinchuriki in the academy and the words that struck him about these people were that they were considered 'human sacrifices'. Sasuke remembered all the glares, snickers and verbal assaults that the blonde had received while in the village. Sasuke began understanding the pain Naruto felt, and the hell he went through every day from the villagers. Sasuke now knew why Naruto said he was similar to him. Sasuke had to deal with this pain for the past three years. The pain of loosing his entire family was terrible, but being the one who pushed Naruto away was nearly as bad, his best friend, gone. Sasuke became motivated to try to find his blonde friend and constantly asked Tsunade if there was any news. Every week for two and a half years Tsunade would give the same negative response. After about two and a half years, Sasuke gave up on his goal to bring Naruto back. His friend was gone, and if no one had seen even a glimpse of him in nearly two and a half years, chances are the boy had died. This pain of the loss of his 'brother' was what ultimately caused him to obtain the mangekyou sharingan. The feeling of pain at the loss of his best friend and closest thing to family he had since his clan's eradication was what elevated his sharingan to the next level. Sasuke still wasn't very skilled in using it but he had the mangekyou at his disposal.

The thoughts of his believed to be dead ex teammate flashed through his mind as he sat down at the booth to Ichirakus with Sakura. They sat quietly for a short while, only talking to give their orders to the somewhat displeased Teuchi. The two teammates sat quietly for around five minutes, not wanting to interfere with each other's morning of their lost friend.

Sakura sat at the booth, thoughts intertwining between Sasuke and Naruto. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about Sasuke while at their monthly remembrance of Naruto but she couldn't help it. He was acting different then normal. Sure he was always extremely cold towards her, but that was how he was to everyone. She shrugged it off and figured it best not to interrupt her crush as he was in thought. He was so mysterious, which she figured was what she liked most about him.

Both of the teammates thoughts were interrupted when Teuchi began speaking in a mumbled tone, with a terrified expression upon his face.

"C…Can I help you Sir?" Asked Teuchi trying to act as polite as possible while trying his best to not act scared. He knew who this man was and what he'd done since his return to the village. He didn't really mind the poor treatment of both Sasuke and Sakura, after all he wasn't big fans of them, but blonde haired man was definitely a scary guy.

Sasuke turned his head to see who could have aroused this kind of reaction from the restaurant owner. Unfortunately for the young Uchiha, his eyes gazed upon the white and red kiri ANBU mask with the small Konoha symbol etched into its forehead, the same mask that had haunted his dreams the past couple of nights.

Naruto glared at the last Uchiha through his two eye slits, anger slowly building but he quickly attempted to regain his composure. Images of him shoving a chidori through his chest, the constant insults and blatant disrespect for Naruto throughout his life had definitely affected Naruto. He was no longer going to simply take the Uchiha's insults and cocky attitude. However Naruto could tell the Uchiha wasn't himself, in fact he looked scared. Naruto grinned under his mask at the terrified look on Sasuke's face, eyes bulging and mouth slightly trembling.

"Sasuke what are you looking at?" Questioned Sakura as she turned her head to see the masked man who she had encountered the previous day in Ino's room. After the man scared her shitless, she simply went home. She didn't go and visit Ino like she planned, she was to scared that the psychopath would return and frighten her even more. But now, here he was again.

Sakura began shaking a little at the sight of the man but quickly turned her head back to face her ramen in front of her, trying her best to make it seem like she never saw him. Naruto noticed the fear both of them had and his grin widened under his mask. Naruto really didn't want to see either of them. The sight of the two made him furious, but it also provided entertainment. It was obvious that the two were definitely fearful of him. Sakura was obviously terrified, which could be seen from her clearly visible trembling. Sasuke was definitely a little intimidated by him. Naruto could see Sasuke had some fear of him, the appalled look on his face supported this but he seemed to be holding himself together better than Sakura.

"Hehe, well, well, well, look who it is.. the great and magnificent Sasuke Uchiha, and the apprentice of the Hokage, Sakura Haruno, what an honor it is to see the both of you, hehe!" Said Naruto in a sarcastic tone and ended in his new high-pitched laugh. Naruto then proceeded to take a seat two seats to the right of Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes follow the masked man as he took a seat to the right of him, making Sasuke relatively uncomfortable. That high-pitched laugh had already screwed with his mind, bringing back memories of their past mission. Sakura was obviously not doing well, continuing to shiver in her seat.

"Can I have one miso ramen please." Asked Naruto in a calm tone towards Teuchi who nodded his head and quickly went to the back of their restaurant to get ingredients for the meal, extremely grateful to finally be able to leave the masked man's presence.

The three ex teammates sat quietly at the ramen stand for a couple of minutes. Naruto was bothered by one thing, why were Sakura and Sasuke at Ichirakus, they had despised going there when he was a genin. Naruto wanted an answer but he'd have to be careful not to reveal anything about himself, these two definitely couldn't know who he was, but he also had to mess with them, it was simply too much fun. Sakura was easily frightened, as seen with his encounter with her in Ino's hospital room. It would be more of a challenge to get Sasuke to show visible fear or sadness.

"It's not very polite to ignore someone wouldn't you say?" Said Naruto in a mocking tone, causing Sasuke's head to dart towards Naruto. Naruto smiled under his mask at the reaction he got from Sasuke.

Sasuke gathered up his courage. He was the last Uchiha, he would no longer be intimidated by some skinny prick. He had fought Orochimaru and Itachi, this guy was nothing compared to S class criminals. Sasuke then responded to the masked man, trying his best to sound as composed as he normally was.

"Why would my teammate or I want to converse with a freak who enjoys killing people in the most painful way imaginable. You're a monster who doesn't deserve to talk with anyone." Said Sasuke, as he turned back towards his food with a stoic face, trying to hide his fear for the man sitting besides him. Naruto smiled under his mask, Sasuke clearly thought he was insane.

"Hehe, I think my killing methods are pretty humane." Said Naruto under his mask in a relatively sarcastic tone. This was great, Naruto knew his killing methods were extremely painful and inhumane. However, he was dying to hear Sasuke's reaction to this.

Sasuke cringed, this man was without a doubt a monster. Sasuke knew his last comment was sarcastic but he couldn't restrain himself. This guy was in the same class as Orochimaru and Itachi, murderers and monsters. None of them deserved to live and this masked man was just as bad as the both of them.

"You sew people together! You shouldn't even joke about your killing methods! You kill in one of the most gruesome and painful ways imaginable! You even crucified those kiri nin! What is wrong with you!? You've done some of the cruelest things I've ever seen, and as a survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre I've seen some terrible things! You deserve to die!" Yelled the Uchiha. He had lost his cool, this guy was poor excuse for a human being. Sasuke thought about killing the man right then and there, he didn't deserve to live.

Naruto listened to the Uchiha's outburst and cringed. The Sasuke Uchiha, the guy who had shoved a chidori through his own teammate's chest was calling him cruel! Naruto kept his cool though, he couldn't reveal himself. He had to get under Sasuke's skin another way. Naruto grinned wickedly under his mask, sure his next statement would sound evil, but it had to be done. Naruto began with his high pitched laugh.

"Hehe, you bring up a good points Uchiha, I guess my methods are pretty gruesome. For some reason I just get a rush when my blade pierces someone, their final yell of pain and terror mixed into one, its music to my ears. The looks on their faces are priceless, mouths wide, eyes bulging, trembling, much like your pink haired teammate is now, hehe. The only trouble with my methods are all the blood that get on my wires, its such a bother to clean. It's just too much fun to stop my ways, I'll admit they're cruel, but just way to much fun to stop." Said Naruto in a cold tone. Naruto grinned wickedly under his mask at the appalled looks on both of his ex teammate's faces. Sasuke stared at him wide-eyed, mouth agape, he couldn't even think of a response to what the masked man had said. This man, no this monster was beyond words. Sakura looked like she was about to throw up, or even faint. Her shaking had increased as her appetite had vanished. There was a short minute long pause where nothing was said, Sasuke and Sakura simply tried to digest everything they just heard this guy say. Naruto then started talking again.

"I'm sure you two have done some pretty cruel things in your life as shinobi, correct?" Asked Naruto, hoping that the two would continue to play along with Naruto's questions. Sasuke couldn't believe what he just heard. This guy was saying what any shinobi did was similar to what he did. This masked shinobi was clearly insane! Before Sasuke could respond, he heard Sakura mutter out a statement.

"W…We haven't d.d..done anything nearly as… as cruel in our entire lives as you did in that short f..fifteen minutes. Don't you dare compare us toy you!" Sputtered out Sakura in a timid tone. This only seemed to amuse the masked man.

"Oh really Sakura Haruno? You don't think you've done anything as bad in your life?" Questioned Naruto. He was cringing and his temper was beginning to flare. Had these two bafoons simply forgot the pain they put him trough? Naruto quickly attempted to restrain himself, knowing that loosing his temper would result in Sasuke and Sakura possibly finding out who he was. He had to stay cool.

"We haven't done anything as terrible as that, you crucified five people! And enjoyed it!" Screamed Sasuke. This guy was ridiculous! Naruto grinned under his mask at the response. He had played Sasuke perfectly in order to maximize the amount of pain and guilt Sasuke felt.

"Hehe, well 'Lord Uchiha' word has spread across the lands about you," said Naruto, causing Sasuke's face to shift to a questioning look, what was this guy talking about?

"People have heard of your skills, missions and your team, after all you are the last Uchiha. It would make sense for other villages to keep track of you." Naruto paused as Sasuke and Sakura both continued to look at the masked man in a confused manner. They still didn't know what he was getting at.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe most genin squads consist of three genin and a jonin sensei. For the past couple of years, the only news I've heard about your team was about the 'Last Uchiha' and the Hokage's new apprentice, Sakura Haruno. Of course there are always talks of the famous copy-cat ninja Kakashi Hatake, but what about the third member of your team?" Sasuke and Sakura finally realized what he was getting at, and it struck them hard.

"People have heard of your teammate's departure from the leaf, although no one knows what happened or what has happened to the boy. However, I imagine that one doesn't simply leave without reason. I'd imagine that like most missing nin, he left because he was hated for one reason or another. One can only handle so much hatred and cruelty, its only a matter of time before one cracks. You two were obviously cruel towards him, one way or another." Said the masked man, each sentence felt like a punch to the face for the two Konoha shinobi. They hated the memories of the pain they inflicted upon Naruto. Sakura's expression changed from shock to that of sadness as her gaze turned to her bowl of ramen. Sasuke also became saddened by the memories of his old teammate, it didn't help that they were at Naruto's favorite restaurant either. However he wasn't about to be put at the same level as this monster.

"You don't know anything about how he was treated in this village! Don't you dare put as at the same level as you." Said Sasuke with a snarl, obviously angry with the masked man. Naruto smiled under his mask at the anger he was arising from the great Sasuke Uchiha who rarely showed emotion.

"It's true that I don't know how he was treated in the village, or what led up to his departure. However I do know that many villages keep tabs on a certain man who you've had quite a history with Sasuke.." said Naruto causing Sasuke's cringing face to once again turn to one of confusion. What was this guy talking about?

"Orochimaru, missing nin from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, perhaps you've heard of him, hehe" said Naruto in a sarcastic tone. Sasuke's face cringed again at the mention of the man who attempted to take him from Konoha to obtain the sharingan.

"Many people know he is desperate to obtain the sharingan, and many villages knew he was attempting to obtain it. Other nations learned of the curse mark he placed on you, and many even learned of your attempt to leave this village.." Said the masked man, Sasuke was about to yell at the man but he was prevented from doing so as the man's short pause was ended and he continued. Sasuke had a relatively good idea where this was headed.

"If I'm not mistaken, I do believe your old teammate was the one who fought you to a standstill until you managed to subdue him, but you were too exhausted to combat anyone else, thus allowing your sensei to retrieve you." Sasuke continued to cringe while listening to this masked shinobi tell him about his final battle with his old teammate. Many of the more experienced and higher ranked shinobi in the village knew of what happened during Sasuke's retrieval so it wasn't a surprise when this man brought up what had happened. Sakura listened on with intent, still not knowing all that had happened between her two old teammates.

"Granted I may have killed those kiri nin in gruesome and painful ways, but they were enemies." Sasuke frowned at this statement, what was he getting at now.

"I personally can't think of a more cruel act than betraying a comrade or teammate, I may have done gruesome things to those kiri nin, but you impaled your teammate with a chidori. So Sasuke Uchiha, I won't put you at the same level as me, in fact I'll put you at an even lower level than me. YOU are the lowest of the low, one who nearly killed his own teammate to obtain power." Said the masked man coldly. Sasuke became both sad and angry at this final statement. It was true Sasuke had committed one of the most atrocious and immoral actions one could commit, and this man didn't mind telling him it. He had committed an action worse than anything this man did to those kiri nin. However, another part of him was furious at the masked man for calling him out for it. Sakura wasn't surprised by what the man had said, many new of Sasuke's battle with Naruto and even how Sasuke nearly killed Naruto with a chidori, many did however it made her feel terrible. The more she thought about it, she had basically shoved a chidori though Naruto's heart every time she rejected him mercilessly.

Teuchi then walked in with Naruto's bowl of ramen. Even he could sense the tension in the air as he brought the bowl out to the masked man. He watched as the masked man took out money to pay for the meal.

"Can I please get this order to go, the company at this place really seems to get me down, hehe" Laughed Naruto as he saw the visible pain on both of his old teammate's faces. he could also see Sasuke cringing at him. Teuchi nodded at his request, too scared to respond after the bone tingling laugh the man exhorted. He was more than happy to get this guy out of his stand. He quickly boxed up the masked man's ramen and handed it to him. The blonde haired nodded at Teuchi, signifying a thank you and began to walk out of the stand, not wanting to look at or even acknowledge his one time teammates. Naruto exited the stand leaving a stunned and saddened Sasuke and Sakura who simply stared down at their food, not in the mood to eat after the chilling description of the man's killing and the reminder of their lost teammate.

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**REVIEW PLEASE! Its really helpful for me so please just take the the additional minute or two to comment on my hard work, thanks.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everyone, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. So heres the next chapter, a lot of people said they wanted longer chapters so I added around 1,500 more words then the other chapters for this one. In this chapter he meets Jiraiya so I hope you enjoy it. I was also getting a lot of reviews saying not to make Naruto seem to powerful. I made sure not to make him come across as TOO powerful but he's still very strong. Keep in mind Kakashi wasn't going all out until it was too late and he needed to in order to save himself, he didn't expect Naruto to be that strong. Also keep in mind that Jiraiya is one of the strongest characters in this whole series when reading this chapter. **

**I was also extremely pleased with the amount of reviews I got on the last chapter it was around 35. After this chapter I should surpass 200 reviews for the story as a whole so please review, it really motivates me to publish chapters faster and provides me with ideas and stuff I need to work on. I COULD REALLY USE SOME IDEAS FOR NEW JUTSU WITH NUIBARI. I already have a few that I plan on using but more would be greatly appreciated. So please just take the extra minute or two to write a couple of words and comment on my work. I really do put quite a bit of time into writing this story so it would be greatly appreciated, so heres the next chapter!**

**READ AND REVIEW!**

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Tsunade was having a relatively calm morning, something that had been unusual this entire week. The council was already questioning her about this masked shinobi who had just randomly joined Konoha and was powerful enough to destroy an entire training field with one jutsu. Tsunade new Naruto didn't want his identity to get out, especially with his ex teammates and the council. The council never liked Naruto dating back to when he was a child, either wanting to give him to Danzo and make him an emotionless weapon or not allow him to become a ninja at all. Luckily neither of these things happened, but who knows what the council would do if they found out Naruto was back in the village. They were rather happy when he left, not even bothering to send out many search parties. The only one who seemed to care was Danzo, but only because he wanted his 'weapon' back in the village. Tsunade was going to have an extremely hard time trying to hide Naruto's identity, especially from the council but that was at the back of her mind as she enjoyed one of the few peaceful mornings she had the opportunity to experience. However, like most days this week, her peaceful morning was destroyed.

Jiraiya was not in a good mood at all. He had spent much of the past three years of his life searching for his previous student's son, and his godson. Despite having the greatest and most intricate spy network in the world that could even get information on Orochimaru and the Akatsuki, he couldn't get any on his godson.

Jiraiya had been near Iwa, gathering information when he had gotten word from a messenger hawk that he was needed back in the Leaf immediately because Naruto had left the village. Jiraiya had sprinted to Konoha, nearly without rest. Unfortunately, by the time he had returned to the village, Naruto had been gone for nearly three days and his trail was cold. Jiraiya was more pissed off then Tsunade had ever seen. Jiraiya immediately set off to look for his godson but couldn't find anything. If he was in the village when Naruto had attempted to escape he could have stopped him but he had arrived to late. Naruto had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. At first he thought Akatsuki may have gotten him however his spy network proved that was incorrect. One thing was for sure, Naruto was hidden somewhere and hadn't even set foot out of that location, making it nearly impossible to find him. Jiraiya was then told how Naruto's contract with the toads was terminated due to him leaving the village, thus making it impossible for him to reverse summon Naruto. From that point on Jiraiya dedicated almost all his time searching for his godson, however despite all his efforts he had no leads on his location or any witnesses who had seen him.

So when Jiraiya heard word from his network that a masked and blonde shinobi had saved three Konoha shinobi he immediately went to the sight of the battle. He saw many dead kiri bodies, all with small wounds that were all fatal, except for five of them who seemed to have been repeatedly punctured by the weapon or jutsu this man used. Jiraiya initially believed that this mysterious person could be Naruto but after seeing the battlefield, he doubted it. Naruto had never enjoyed killing, in fact he tried at all costs to avoid doing it. Whoever had done this obviously didn't mind killing.

Jiraiya left the battle field but shortly after received another message from a messenger hawk. Jiraiya opened the scroll and began reading the message only to have his eyes bulge out of his head. The message read:

_Jiraiya, get back to the village immediately. Naruto's returned, and he's definitely changed. We have a lot to discuss._

_Tsunade._

A large smile crept onto Jiraiya's face as he began his journey back to Konoha, which wasn't far away at all. Naruto was finally back! However, Jiraiya remembered how the message had said he changed and Jiraiya had a bad feeling about it. The cheerful and hyper-active student he once had probably changed a great deal, but at least he was back. Jiraiya kept a small smirk on his face his entire way back to Konoha.

Tsunade was sitting at her desk, enjoying a small glass of sake that she enjoyed every morning.

"Where is he!"

Screamed a voice perched on Tsunade's office window, causing her to spit out the sake she currently had in her mouth. She knew the voice, after all she had known Jiraiya for years, however she didn't expect Jiraiya to be back this fast. And as always, she didn't expect him to scare her in her office window. Tsunade shot up out of her chair, prepared to flatten Jiraiya but when she looked at his face, she saw there was no smile or smirk. He had one of the most serious expressions she had ever seen him wear on his face. She knew from experience with her teammate that Jiraiya rarely got pissed off, however when he did he was definitely a person to be feared. This was obviously one of those times when he was pissed off. She knew Jiraiya had been looking for Naruto the past three years and he obviously wanted to see him immediately. She sighed, knowing that there was no chance of her talking to him beforehand.

"Farthest training field from the center of the village. Please come back here afterwards so we can talk…"

Said Tsunade, gaining a nod from Jiraiya before he vanished. Jiraiya darted to the training field Tsunade described. After a few minutes he found it, and saw none other than the masked man with blonde hair who had been described to him by his spy network. Jiraiya's face immediately changed to a slightly disturbed one. That meant the masked man who had slaughtered all of those kiri ANBU must have been Naruto. This would mean that Naruto had definitely changed since he left, and definitely not in a good way.

Naruto was at the same training ground he was at the previous day. He was debating in his head what he should do for the day. He had a lot he needed to work on, he simply didn't know what to train for. He could always train with nuibari since he still wasn't as good as Kushimaru was with the deadly blade. There was always the possibility of learning a new water jutsu, but he already new more than enough. There was the possibility of learning a new element besides water. He still didn't know what affinity he was but chances were he was probably water. Then there was the new possibility of gaining experience with his new summon. However, his thoughts were quickly derailed when someone leapt onto the ground behind him. Naruto immediately spun around while taking out nuibari in his right hand, prepared to fight whoever had decided to surprise him.

Naruto nearly dropped his sword out of his hand at the sight of the person standing before him. Gone were any hostilities towards this man, one of the only ones who had never treated him poorly. It took almost all of his will power to resist running towards his old and perverted sensei. He saw the huge smile on the toad hermit's face, white hair blowing in the wind. Memories of some of the only good times in his life flooded his mind as he began remembering the training and journeys he experienced with Jiraiya. Despite all of his excitement to see his old sensei, he had to try to keep his identity a secret from the old perverted sage. Although, Naruto knew this would be nearly impossible.

"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to return to Konoha?" Said Jiraiya in a joking tone causing Naruto to grin wildly under his mask. For the first time since his return to the village, Naruto wasn't grinning because of the revenge he was getting, he was grinning out of pure joy to see one of the few people who ever accepted him.

"P..Pevy sage?" Questioned Naruto, hoping his eyes weren't really deceiving him.

"After all these years, you still remembered to call me by the name I specifically told you not to call me!" Sighed Jiraiya as he folded his arms with a smirk on his face.

Naruto didn't know what to do or say. 'Hey Pervy Sage, sorry for leaving the village and not telling you or keeping in touch with you!' yeah that would go well. 'Should I give him a hug?' thought Naruto. Not having to deal with people had definitely thrown much of his social skills down the shoot. Fortunately for Naruto, Jiraiya carried on the conversation

"That's quite the weapon you got there, you wouldn't have happened to use that against a couple of kiri ANBU, would you?" Said Jiraiya with a small smirk still on his face, which hid the thoughts that were currently racing through his mind.

Jiraiya was completely dumbfounded. He had often thought of what had become of his godson while he attempted to locate him. He had thought of a variety of possible outcomes of the boy had he decided to train. But in none of these did he picture Naruto wielding one of the seven legendary swords of the mist, let alone the nuibari, arguably the most peculiar of the seven. Jiraiya had known of the Seven Legendary swordsman of the Mist, in fact he had multiple run-ins with some of the members. Jiraiya had to gather lots of information on the seven swordsman as they were extremely powerful enemies during Jiraiya's younger days. he remembered reading information on Kushimaru, the previous wielder and his blade nuibari, or the sewing needle. Jiraiya never pictured Naruto wielding a sword, let alone the sewing needle. In fact, Naruto almost looked exactly Kushimaru besides the shorter and more golden blonde hair and a slightly more muscular build.

"Never pictured you as one to wield a sword, let alone the legendary nuibari. One of the most gruesome swords ever invented." Said Jiraiya, gaining a chuckle from his student.

"Hehe, yeah, well its a long story that I'll have to tell you." Said Naruto as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Jiraiya really didn't enjoy the mask he was wearing either, it completely hid Naruto's facial expressions from sight. He knew he would have to catch up with Naruto soon but was extremely tempted to see the progress his student had made during the past three years, and to see his proficiency with the blade. He still hoped to continue training the boy, maybe even resume his summoning of the toads, but it all depended on what his student had learned all these years.

"Well Naruto, I'd rather not have you tell me about your skills, why don't we test them out. I hope your they haven't dulled over these years." Said Jiraiya with a grin as he got into a battle stance.

Naruto grinned under his mask. Sparring was definitely a good way to train, plus it could work on all of his skills rather than just one specifically. Naruto began twirling the blade in his right hand and spoke up.

"Sounds good to me Pervy Sage, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Jiraiya smirked at the slight cockiness his student was exhorting but figured he'd whip that out of him this battle. Jiraiya thought he'd first begin by testing out his student's taijutsu.

Jiraiya sprinted at his student immediately, catching Naruto off guard. Jiraiya began by launching many rapid punches at Naruto, who began dodging them for his life. Jiraiya didn't plan on holding back too much in this spar. Naruto had thought he may stand a decent chance against the one man who he could actually call his sensei. He did do extremely well against Kakashi, granted Kakashi wasn't going all out but he had still landed some pretty good hits on him. Jiraiya on the other hand seemed to be on a completely different level then Kakashi, and definetly himself. The sheer speed that Jiraiya was unleashing punches at was ridiculous, he was amazed that he had managed to dodge so many of them. The thing that angered Naruto the most was the fact that he couldn't get any separation from the white-haired sanin. Naruto's whole fighting style revolved around maintaining some distance from his opponent. Sure he had nuibari, but it was more effective at medium range where he could throw the weapon. Nuibari was extremely thin and didn't serve much of a purpose in defending against taijutsu. The other problem with the current taijutsu spar was that Jiraiya was unleashing so many punches that Naruto couldn't manage to even try to use nuibari. Naruto couldn't afford to let his defense slip for even a millisecond or he'd be clobbered by his sensei's fist.

Jiraiya was relatively impressed with his student's taijutsu. It was obvious he didn't enjoy fighting in close quarters as he was constantly trying to jump away or create distance from Jiraiya. He noticed that Naruto's entire taijutsu style revolved around dodging enemy assaults and essentially tiring out the enemy. It was clear that the style revolved around being faster than your enemy, but unfortunately for Naruto he wasn't faster than Jiraiya. He was impressed that Naruto had managed to dodge or block all the punches Jiraiya was launching at him, but it had only been around thirty seconds.

Naruto put his left hand up to the side to block on incoming punch from his sensei and successfully blocked. He believed he now might have time to lunge with nuibari and create some separation. However, he was sorely mistaken as Jiraiya's knee plunged into his gut causing him to fly back a couple of feet. Naruto groaned in pain as he slowly stood up from the blow to his stomach. Naruto looked up to see a large grin on Jiraiya's face.

"Not bad brat, but definitely not too good, I see you've got to work on your close combat skills a little more."

Said Jiraiya. Naruto groaned in pain as he heard Jiraiya's comment. He was simply too fast for Naruto to even attempt to begin using his sword. Naruto then decided to change the fight to one he had the advantage in.

Jiraiya looked on as the masked Naruto began running through hand seals.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Said Naruto as a thick mist descended upon the battlefield.

Jiraiya's smirk immediately changed to that of a frown, this wasn't going to be fun. While studying the seven ninja swordsman, he had learned of this jutsu. It was one performed by Zabuza, the wielder of kubikiribocho. He knew that it formed a thick mist which made it nearly impossible to see. The worst part of it was that the user of the jutsu was normally a master at silent killing, utilizing the thick mist to avoid being seen. The user would make almost no noise at all and utilize his opponents lack of vision to quickly kill the enemy. Jiraiya continued to become more and more shocked at the path his student had gone on as a ninja. If he was even somewhat proficient at using silent killing he could definitely pass as a jonin, not to mention he hadn't even seen his skills with nuibari.

"Hehe, well Pervy Sage, I prefer to fight under these circumstances, I fell much more comfortable with my mist, hehe!" Said Naruto, once again using his high-pitched laugh which echoed through the mist.

"Thats quite a freaky laugh you got their kid…"

Said Jiraiya, a little disturbed by the laughter that was echoing through the mist. This only brought more laughter from his student. He immediately got on the defensive as he heard multiple poofing sounds which were all too familiar to him.

"I see you still like the shadow clone jutsu, its good to see you haven't completely changed!"

Joked Jiraiya, only to find the all had gone quiet in the mist, causing Jiraiya to groan once more, this was definitely going to be a bother to deal with. His student was defiantly proficient in the mist as he couldn't hear anything moving until he heard a twig snap a couple of feet behind him. He quickly darted to the location and cocked his fist before implanting it into the mask covering the boy's face only to hear poof as the Naruto in front of him vanished. He was then forced to duck as two nuibaris flew directly at where his chest was. 'Very clever' thought Jiraiya as he stayed crouched on the floor. 'He purposely made one of his clones make noise to get my attention'. Jiraiya was then forced to leap backwards as a Naruto lunged towards him with nuibari in hand. Jiraiya stopped his retreat by throwing two kunai at the Naruto in front of him who deflected them by twirling his blade in front of him. Jiraiya then heard that eerie laughter echo through the mist along with Naruto's next jutsu.

"Hehe, Long Sword Ninja Art: Raining Needle Web!"

Shouted Naruto as Jiraiya saw nuibari's flying at him from all directions. Jiraiya's quickly covered his body with his white hair as he activated his needle jizo as the hair became hard as steel. He heard the deflection of multiple swords hit his hair and smirked under his protective coat. 'Not bad again!' thought Jiraiya, continuing t be impressed by his student's skills.

Naruto was getting frustrated, pretty much anything he did was countered by his sensei. Jiraiya was clearly in a different league then Naruto, but he still had some tricks up his sleeve. It was obvious Naruto would need to trick Jiraiya somehow since he obviously was outclassed in nearly every skill by Jiraiya. He then thought about maybe using some ninjutsu against his teacher, it couldn't hurt.

Jiraiya sat inside his coat of hair for a couple of seconds before launching his next attack. It was time to try to go on the offensive, however it would be challenging in this mist.

"Ninja Art: Needle Hell!"

Said Jiraiya as his hair, which was now in the shape of senbon and still hard as steel began firing off in all directions in the mist as he heard multiple poofs go off throughout the mist. Naruto was simply thinking of his next move until he heard Jiraiya's next move and instantly began going through hand signs for his next jutsu, but he felt the memories of many of his clones hit him. They were all destroyed by some form of needles that Jiraiya was firing off.

"Ninja Art Water Style: Water Wall!"

.

Said Naruto just in time as a large wall of date shot up in front of him, blocking the incoming hair senbon from hitting him. Jiraiya became even more impressed when he saw Naruto was able to use pretty advanced water techniques. Jiraiya was thrilled that Naruto had a lot of knowledge with an element and was excited to possibly develop skills with another one however he was quickly snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Naruto's next jutsu and new he had to move.

"Ninja Art Water Style: Water Fang Bullet!"

Said Naruto as water shot out from his mouth in the shape of a fang with the point of the water fang being sharp enough to easily kill. Jiraiya leapt back from his location just in time as the water fang came crashing down into his previous location.

"Your pretty good with Water jutsu kid."

Naruto was starting to get more and more frustrated, none of his attacks were hitting him. He figured his black rain technique would be useless as Jiraiya would probably just rap himself with his hair again. It would also be too risky to let up the mist at this point. The only reason Naruto still had the slightest chance against the Sanin was that the mist was preventing Jiraiya from getting close to Naruto. Every time Jiraiya began moving towards Naruto he would create clones to attack from a distance, distracting him, and then moved to a new location. At this rate he might have to reveal his most advanced technique he'd learned. But there had to be other alternatives, he didn't want to reveal every single possible card he had up his sleeve. Fighting Jiraiya with nuibari was a possibility. He hadn't really used the blade in relatively close combat yet so Jiraiya didn't know his skills with it. However, as stated earlier, nuibari was the most powerful when Naruto was faster than his opponent so he could throw the blade and quickly catch at a different point while it flew through the air. However, Jiraiya was obviously faster so that made it risky. The black rain technique simply had too many risks to use and risk it not succeeding. Without the mist Naruto was done for. He could use his special technique, but then he couldn't have any surprises for opponents. However, the rest of his ninjutsu seemed to be useless at this point, after all Jiraiya was famous mostly for his ninjutsu, so Naruto didn't really stand a chance there. Then an idea hit him, it was the only possible alternative to revealing his special technique, he could use the giant clam but it would probably be best to train with the clam before going into battle without knowing how to fight alongside it. Naruto then settled on attempting to use nuibari and possibly catch the satin off guard with his proficiency with the weapon

Naruto silently made his way through the mist with nuibari in hand. Jiraiya had figured he'd have around a minute before Naruto recovered and planned his next attack, however once again the field was once again completely silent. Then once again Jiraiya saw nuibari flying straight at him just in time as he once again ducked under the blade. However after a couple of seconds the blade came firing back at him from behind forcing him to leap into the air to avoid the incoming blade. Just as the blade passed under him he saw Naruto appear and catch the blade. Once Jiraiya landed he had to evade multiple lunges of the needle blade, although the blade did graze his left arm as he cringed before back flipping to get some distance from Naruto. He pulled out two kunai and flung them at Naruto he deflected the two using nuibari and did it with ease. Jiraiya was definitely impressed with Naruto's sword skills, intact he severely underestimated them. He could throw the blade expertly and then catch it at a different location with ease and with great speed.

"I think I've seen enough Naruto, why don't we call this thing off before we start getting to aggressive."

Said Jiraiya causing Naruto to smirk under his mask at the statement. Naruto released his mist, revealing a smiling Jiraiya standing in a wrecked training field. Naruto hadn't gone all out against Jiraiya. refusing to use his most powerful techniques but Jiraiya obviously wasn't either. He had been testing Naruto's skills, Naruto probably should have guessed this would happen, after all Jiraiya was probably even stronger than Tsunade who was the Hokage.

"So I see you've made quite a bit of progress since you left. You actually made me work in this spar!"

Joked Jiraiya who glanced at his bleeding shoulder, causing Naruto to smirk under his mask. He'd missed his perverted sensei's antics and jokes. Naruto still wasn't very comfortable talking to any though, regardless of who it was.

"Thanks.."

Jiraiya had noticed Naruto's new type of behavior. His social skills had obviously regressed after his return, the only question is why this might have happened. Jiraiya had no knowledge on where Naruto went and how he had trained, he had obviously advanced a great deal. Jiraiya could tell Naruto had been holding back in an attempt to both conceal his skills and to not hurt him. Jiraiya was happy that Naruto appeared to still care about him somewhat.

"So, care to tell me where you were these past three years? I wasted a lot of time looking for you ya brat!"

Naruto smiled under his mask, not out someone else's fear, or messing with someone, but smiled out of pure happiness. It was definitely great to see Jiraiya again but he really didn't want to give away too much about himself yet, he would definitely tell his sensei soon but not now. After all he still wanted to learn things from the legendary Sanin.

"Well…you see I really can't tell you yet.."

Said Naruto causing a frown to appear on Jiraiya's face as he was about to protest but Naruto didn't let him speak up.

"But I promise Pervy Sage, you and Tsunade will be the first I tell, and it will be really soon, I just…need to keep some things… hidden.."

Jiraiya was slightly ticked off that Naruto wouldn't tell him what he had done over the past three years. However, he was somewhat pleased with Naruto's attempt to keep information on him hidden. It would make him much more difficult to face in combat if not everything was known about him. Naruto had definitely matured in terms of his intellect as well as his skill as a ninja. Jiraiya sighed in defeat, knowing that it would be pointless to continue the discussion, he wouldn't get anything out of his student.

"Well your word better still be as important to you as it was before you left, Tsunade and I do need information relatively soon, the council will start asking questions. But I must be off, Tsunade wanted to talk with me, its good to have you back Naruto!"

Naruto grinned under his mask at Jiraiya's last words, it was good feeling to know someone cared about him. Jiraiya grinned and then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. This left Naruto alone on the severely damaged training ground. Naruto figured that his 'spar' was more then enough training for the day, he was pretty tired and decided to head back to the village and read so more scrolls from Kushimaru on nuibari, this last battle showed Naruto that he still had a lot to learn with blade. There were some weaknesses in extremely close combat where Naruto needed some tips on. Naruto then began his journey back to the village.

0o0

Tsunade was sitting in her office, patiently waiting for Jiraiya to return from meeting with Naruto. As usual Jiraiya appeared on the window to her office, causing her to sigh at her teammate's stupid antics. Tsunade was too anxious to hear Jiraiya's thoughts on Naruto to pummel him to the ground. Jiraiya leapt into the room and proceeded to lean on a wall directly in front of the Hokage's desk.

"Well he certainly has changed, wouldn't you say?"

Said Jiraiya while chuckling causing Tsunade to stare at him in a confused manner. Was he not concerned by Naruto's new personality?

"You weren't disturbed by his new personality?"

"I wasn't disturbed, he acted rather timidly towards me, but I could hear some happiness in his voice when he saw me. But in all honestly I imagined him becoming more hostile if he ever returned to the village."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at Jiraiya's statement. Jiraiya saw the questioning look on Tsunade's face and explained further.

"Tsunade, you know how he was treated in the village. When I first took him under my wing I was surprised how energetic he was, it was a miracle he didn't want to destroy the entire village with the way people treated him. Even his own teammates despised him, I mean Sasuke nearly killed him."

Tsunade's face became solemn after remembering the treatment the boy who she saw as a son was treated. She heard it was a lot worse before she even returned to the village. She couldn't begin to feel the pain Naruto went through. The more she thought about it, the more she understood Jiraiya's logic but she still didn't like it.

"But still, your acting like he's still the same kid from three years ago!"

"Tsunade we both know he isn't the same! But don't you think we at least owe him enough to treat him the same!? You of all people should fell that way, after all he did save your life."

Yelled Jiraiya, obviously annoyed and angry with the way Tsunade was acting and what she was saying. Tsunade was slightly taken back by Jiraiya's tone but that quickly left her mind as images of her fight with Orochimaru and Kabuto began flooding her mind. She remembered Naruto using the rasengan to defeat Kabuto and save her life.

"Damnit….. your right.."

Said Tsunade who had sighed as her face dropped to one of sadness. Jiraiya stared straight ahead at her, smiling inside at the change he had made in Tsunade's attitude. Sure he didn't 'love' the new Naruto but that didn't justify treating him differently, they all owed him that much.

"But on another note, from what I saw in terms of his skills.. he's easily a jonin. I could tell he was holding back considerably and still managed to graze my shoulder. Granted I was holding back but that's still impressive. His skills with his sword are definitely something to be feared, although there are some weaknesses with how he uses it, but I'm sure he noticed that and is going to fix it. He utilizes the hidden mist technique that Zabuza used, and does it almost perfectly, he's definitely skilled in silent killing. He can use a variety of water based ninjutsu and has different jutsu involving his sword. He was definitely restraining from using his strongest techniques but from what I saw, he could definitely defeat most jonin."

"Yeah...I know…."

Sid Tsunade, this time causing Jiraiya to become slightly confused.

"He fought Kakashi and nearly killed him. Kakashi wasn't expecting Naruto to be as strong as he was and didn't go all out. From what he said he was put on the defensive right from the beginning and never got time to launch an attack. Naruto was furious with him and accidentally revealed one of his strongest techniques."

Jiraiya was very interested now about any additional skills Naruto had.

"He used some technique called 'Black Rain'. Kakashi said it turned the mist into oil which covered almost all of the training ground including himself. Naruto ignited the oil, and Kakashi barely managed to defend him self by forming multiple earth walls. Training ground 7 can no longer be used now. Theres no grass, tons of craters and destroyed and burnt trees."

Jiraiya had expected Naruto to have some powerful techniques but he didn't believe he had something to the magnitude of that. He could only imagine what other jutsu the boy had at his disposal. He smirked at the vast progress his student made, and he didn't even know all the jutsu he could use. Jiraiya definitely couldn't wait to possibly resume training the boy, but then he remembered something Tsunade said.

"You said he was furious with Kakashi?"

"Yeah, he gets extremely angry whenever he sees Kakashi, Sasuke or Sakura. He acts homicidal towards almost everyone besides us. The entire village is terrified of him, including a lot of the shinobi."

Jiraiya began chuckling at hearing this news. He personally hated the Uchiha and Sakura. The way they both treated Naruto infuriated him. When Sasuke was brought back and his punishment was being decided, Jiraiya fought hard to have the boy imprisoned for life, much to the dismay of the rest of the council besides those whose children had been placed on the retrieval mission.

"Why are you laughing you idiot, this is serious!"

"I just think it serves them right for all those years of terrible treatment."

Tsunade sighed, it was probably best to end the conversation there for now, there was no way she going to change her teammate's mind nor his view on the seriousness of the matter.

"He also said he'd tell both you and I about what he did over the past three years pretty soon, so I guess we'll meet when that time comes. So unless you still need me, I haven't done any research in a while now, been so busy looking for the brat, so I'm off!"

Yelled Jiraiya as he leapt out the window. Tsunade groaned at her stupid teammate as he left, leaving her alone with her thoughts and her mountainous stack of paperwork.

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**Next Chapter should probably involve both interaction between Ino and Naruto, also more training and learning some new techniques. Soon I'll probably send Naruto into the field with a team to start missions again. I still have to introduce him to the rest of the rookies so that also might be fit into the next chapter. All ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated.**

**READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone, here's the next chapter. Im actually extremely sorry about not updating in a really long time or responding to reviews. I've been swamped with work for school and just finished finals on Friday. As I stated earlier I'm extremely sorry for how long it took to update but school definitely takes a priority over anything else so thats the main reason for my tardiness. I also got a new computer so I shouldn't encounter that error again. I'm now on spring break for 3 1/2 weeks so expect quite a few updates. If you every read these notes you know I tend to crank quite a few chapters out during breaks and since this is so long expect a lot to make up for my lack of updates. **

**As for this chapter, theres not too much action in it. I know a lot of you will probably be pissed that this is the next chapter after such a long wait but I had to move the story along so there have to be some chapters that don't have a lot of action. Its kinda a set up chapter so don't rip me apart over it, I know its probably not that entertaining but the next chapter will have plenty of action so don't worry about it so here ya go. Once again I'm sorry for the long wait.**

**Special thanks to Ironddragon55 on helping me with this.**

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Naruto grinned behind his mask at his progress this past week as he stood in the training ground. He had been able to come up with ways to implement Nuibari in rapid paced taijutsu battles. He practiced against his clones, as they launched punches at him as fast as possible, while he only attempted to block with his blade. It was tricky and painful training, as placing the skinny blade in front of punches was difficult and required precision. Naruto got many welts from his clones punches but eventually began improving with the training. The key was utilizing Nuibari's length which made it somewhat easier to move the blade to counter attacks. By the end of the week Naruto was easily able to fend off many his clone's punches at once. Granted one of his clones wasn't Jiraiya but at least he had addressed that fault in his combat skills. The other training Naruto went through the past week regarded his new summon, the giant clam. Training with clam was….. interesting to say the least. Naruto felt extremely awkward training with a creature that couldn't even speak or move. Naruto had sat there on the first day for around four hours thinking of any way he could think of to communicate with the giant thing. As Naruto sat there an idea hit him, maybe he could communicate through chakra! Naruto tried and emitted a pulse of chakra. A few seconds after this the clam opened its shell and the mist began to emit from its siphons. As the week continued Naruto was able to understand how to utilize the clam. He trained against clones as he subjected them to the clam's mist. The clones were unable to locate him or the clam, thus allowing him to move around without direction and silently kill his opponents while they're distracted by the mirage. Overall Naruto accomplished a great deal the past week. Granted he still probably wasn't ready to use his new summon in combat but he would be soon.

Naruto leaned on his sword as he felt a foreign chakra signature enter the training ground. He turned around to see a cat faced ANBU member.

"Hokage-sama asks for your presence," said the ANBU that appeared before disappearing.

Naruto nodded but inwardly groaned. He had enjoyed a week without seeing anyone. It was true that he had been somewhat lonely in Kushimaru's cave but he had become accustomed to it. Now that he was being integrated back into society, he kind of wished that he could just go back to his cave by himself. He spent nearly all his time at the training ground or in his apartment, only seeing people when walking through streets. He sighed, knowing that he now had duties to the village now. Naruto began making his way to the Hokage's office, as his thoughts began to wonder about what Tsunade could want. He really hoped it wasn't an interrogation about where he'd been. Hopefully he got a mission, he still hadn't had much real battle experience. Naruto continued walking through the center of the village, ignoring the whispers and gasps he got when passing, he really didn't care. He soon got to the Hokage tower and entered.

"Tsunade is waiting for you," said a familiar face to Naruto. Shizune was standing outside Tsunade's door. She had a neutral expression on her face causing Naruto to believe she still didn't know who he was. Naruto remembered some of his happier times with both Shizune and smiled sadly under his mask. He couldn't tell Shizune, no one else could know right now. He proceeded to walk to Tsunade's door. Naruto knocked on the door and entered the room to find Tsunade sitting at her desk with a bottle of saké doing paper work.

"Do you have a mission for me?" asked Naruto calmly as Tsunade stared up at the man in front of her.

"Yes I do, its extremely important so pay attention. There have been strange disturbances going on across some villages on the Fire Country border. There have been multiple deaths of civilians and two chunin have been killed. Were sending you, Ino Yamanaka and Shino Aburame alongside you. Shino, being a jonin will be in command. Keep in mind that your still a genin so you have to follow both Ino and Shino's orders, got it?"

Naruto nodded, somewhat surprised by the fact that he actually had a mission, but gritted his teeth. He was still a genin! That was ridiculous, he shouldn't be taking orders from Shino, and especially not Ino. He was grateful to Ino, he was glad she hadn't blabbered around about who he really was but last he remembered she was one of the weakest in the class.

"Very well, also I need to remind you of one thing which is why I called you in early. The Akatsuki are still out there and are looking for Jinchuriki such as yourself. We know they already have a few…. so be careful"

Said Tsunade as she saw Naruto tighten his grip on his sword. Memories of Itacthi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki hit him. He had read a bit about Kisame in Kushimaru's scrolls. He betrayed the Mist and killed the previous wielder of Samehada to obtain the legendary blade. He was extremely powerful and hailed as the 'Tailless Bijuu'. He knew of Itatchi's history as well. If these two were part of this organization he could only imagine what other powerful ninja were in the organization.

Tsunade knew the risks of sending Naruto into the field. It had been years since Naruto had been on a mission. hell, he hadn't cooperated or interacted with anyone in years. She was against sending him into the field so soon but Jiraiya had convinced her to give him a shot. She needed to test him to see if he could even be implemented back into the shinobi force, he had been labeled a missing nin for the past couple of years. She needed to know if he would be able to take orders or work with others. However, from what she'd about Kakashi and Jiraiya's fights with him, she didn't know if he could. His fighting style involving the mist couldn't be utilized with others, granted he might not need others in the mist but he would eventually against Akatsuki. She feared for Naruto's safety regarding the Akatsuki but she couldn't just keep him locked up in the village, he obviously could defend himself relatively well. Tsunade's thoughts were interrupted by her door opening due to both Ino and Shino entering.

Ino entered the Hokage's office quietly behind Shino. Normally she would be talking, being the social butterfly that she was but it's not like she could really hold a conversation with the bug user she was paired with for her mission. He was always silent and kept to himself, plus he loved…..bugs, which kind of creeped her out. She was normally paired on missions with her typical team, which included Shikamaru and Choji but she didn't necessarily mind working with others. It was just she worked almost flawlessly alongside her usual team and she wasn't as confident working alongside others. Shino and her were told to see the Hokage to meet the third member of their team for the upcoming mission. Her thoughts were completely destroyed when her gaze fell upon the sunshine blond hair that belonged to her one time cheerful classmate, Naruto Uzumaki.

Ino had thought about Naruto for a while after he had departed from the hospital room. She had seen two sides of the boy who she had grown up with. She had seen a timid and awkward side of him in which he was having trouble even communicating with her. But then there was the side of him that made her scared to death. He had sen him tear Sakura apart and it was not a pretty sight. To be honest she didn't know what to think of Naruto. One thing was for sure though, she definitely didn't feel comfortable around him and certainly wouldn't prefer to have him as a teammate on a mission.

Naruto turned around to see Ino frozen in the doorway, a fearful expression on her face. Naruto's attention turned to the boy with spiky black hair and large jacket. After a couple of second of looking at the boy he recognized him as Shino. Shino was the kid in his class who preferred using bugs, he remembered Shino being pretty strong. His thoughts refocused on Ino who remained frozen in place. Naruto sighed, he was hoping that maybe Ino wouldn't be terrified of him like most but that obviously wasn't the case. Naruto turned back around to face Tsunade who had a neutral expression on her face. Before Naruto could say anything Ino spoke up.

"So we're…. going on a mission with him?"

Said Ino doing her best to act normal despite all the thoughts running through her mind. She didn't know what to do. She assumed that Tsunade knew who he was but Shino definitely didn't.

"Yes, he will be accompanying Shino and you for this mission. As you already know this mission could possibly be extremely dangerous and you will need another powerful ninja to serve alongside you two."

Tsunade responded trying her best to respond normally to Ino's question. She had seen both a confused and disturbed appearance on Ino's face which concerned her. Either Ino knew something about Naruto or she was just disturbed by him. She thought it was probably the latter due to her knowledge of how secretive he was being. She knew how difficult it would be for Ino and Shino to work with him but she HAD to see how Naruto worked in the field. Shino then spoke up.

"Not that I'm going against your orders Hokage-sama but are you sure this is a smart idea? Ino and I don't work together very often so our teamwork skills already aren't perfect, but throwing …..him into the mix will destroy any strands of it."

"I understand you concern Shino but this is something that needs to be done. You two need another member for your squad and I need to see how... he'll operate in the field."

Shino nodded his head slightly, signifying that he understood but he still wasn't fully on board. Ino then spoke up again to voice her concerns.

"But Hokage-sama, we haven't even seen him perform in combat. We don't know his strengths, or weaknesses. He could even put us at a disadvantage out there because of our lack of chemistry! Hell, we don't even know his name!"

Protested Ino, she knew who he really was, but she had no idea what to call him with others there. She decided that she could at least keep her secret but that still didn't change her opinion on not wanting to go on a mission with him.

"You all do realize I'm right here, correct? Its kinda rude to be so openly opposed to going on a mission with me. I assure you that I won't be a disadvantage to either of you in the field so I say you quit your complaining so we can get a move on. The enemies won't exterminate themselves, hehe. As for your statement about my name, you can call me…. Nuu."

Tsunade frowned at Naruto's harsh response but couldn't add much else, he was right with regards to how they needed to get a move on.

"Nuu… is right, you all do need to get a move on, the more time you waste, the more the enemies influence spreads get going, I don't want to hear any more complaints."

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

Said Ino and Shino in unison as Naruto exited the room. Ino stared at him walk out the room in shock at the disrespect shown to their Hokage but as looked back at Tsunade she could tell she wasn't in the mood to get angry about it.

0o0

Naruto made his way to the gate after packing up his supplies in his apartment. He had simply packed a sleeping bag some food and quite a few senbon needles, which were his new preferences rather then kunai. He arrived at the gate to see both Shino and Ino waiting for him. Naruto remembered that Shino never talked so he wouldn't have to worry about awkward conversations with him. But on the other hand, there did lie the issue of dealing with Ino, who he remembered being a complete chatterbox. She did act relatively calm when he had talked to her in the hospital, granted she was pretty severely injured not to mention probably scared out of her mind, but she still handled it….ok. Well at least she didn't scream or freak out so that was a positive.

Ino saw "Nuu" approaching and gulped. This was going to be one hell of a mission. She was paired with Shino, the completely silent bug user, and Naruto, the now maniacal needle-blade wielder. She wasn't positive but she was pretty sure that she was one of a select few who knew who the masked blade wielder was and who had even had a normal conversation with him. That one conversation they had was…interesting and relatively awkward, but that awkward feeling had quickly turned to intimidation when Sakura entered the room as Naruto completely changed from an awkward and shy boy to a vicious and cruel man. It appeared as if for the upcoming mission there wouldn't be much conversing.

"Lets go."

Said Shino in his typical monotone voice, gaining a nod from Naruto and delayed nod from Ino as she was awoke from her thoughts. The three man cell walked outside the gates of Konoha before picking up the pace and darting through the trees. The journey was anticipated to take around one day until they reached their destination on the border of the land of fire close to Kumo. The threesome moved silently as they darted through the trees. They encountered no problems as they traveled through the land of fire. This didn't come as too much of a surprise. Most of the Land of Fire was well protected and stayed in line. Issues were mostly found on the edges of the territory. The farther away from the village, the harder it was to patrol, which led to more instability and enemies.

Ino was screaming inwardly at the awkwardness as they traveled through the forest, jumping from branch to branch. They had traveled for nearly 10 hours and neither Shino or Naruto had said a word. Typically she would be the one to start a conversation but what would she talk about? Shino never talked and she didn't even know if she should talk to Naruto. Shino was at the head of the three man cell while Naruto and her trailed behind. She thought about starting up a conversation multiple times but feared him loosing it like he did with Sakura. So she had decided she'd travel on in silence until Shino stopped the two.

We'll rest here for the night."

The statement didn't receive any objections from either Ino or Naruto. They had left the village in the afternoon so it was getting late. Shino had decided it would be best to rest and regain energy for the next day in case they encountered an y enemies. Shino was confident in his own abilities but wasn't so sure of his two teammates. He had worked with Ino a couple years and new of the Yamanaka clan's abilities but didn't know her proficiency witht hem. She figured she must be pretty skilled at them to be able to complete missions her team had done. However he did know that her team, alongside Shikamaru and Choji depended a lot on teamwork so he was skeptical of her skills individually. The masked swordsman was another issue. He had no doubt that he must be relatively strong to be able to wield one of the Seven Legendary Swords of the Mist, but there was so much mystery surrounding him and almost no one new of his skills and abilities. The only information he'd heard was that he was able to single-handedly blow up an entire training ground with one jutsu, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about him being a hinderance.

Naruto leapt off the branch he had been standing on in order to begin setting up camp. Camp for him involved simply a sleeping bag, contrary to the tents that both Ino and Shino had brought. He had become accustomed to sleeping on the ground with simply a sleeping bag due to his years in Kushimaru's cave. He made a camp fire while Ino and Shino set up their tents. There were two stumps surrounding the camp fire and Naruto took a seat on one of them. He wasn't really that tired so he figured he'd volunteer for first watch. He took out Nuibari and began twirling it his right hand, which had become his new favorite activity to do in order to pass the time.

"I'll take first watch."

Said Naruto, gaining a nod from Shino who returned back to work on setting up his tent. Ino also nodded as well and walked over to the fire having completed setting up her tent.

"You only brought a sleeping bag?"

Questioned Ino as she looked over to Naruto who was sitting on a tree stump next to his sleeping bag. He was currently twirling Nuibari in his hand.

"Yeah, I'm use to sleeping on the ground."

Responded Naruto, gaining a questioning look from Ino but she knew she probably wouldn't get anything else from him. Shino finished setting up his tent and walked over to the campfire.

"I'm going to sleep, wake me for my watch."

Shino watched 'Nuu' nod and walked back to his tent and fell asleep. Ino watched Shino enter his tent and then sat down on the stump across from the one Naruto was sitting at. She stared at him as he twirled the long needle blade so easily. She thought back to the young hyper-active ninja who was the dead last of the academy. She had witnessed his growth as a genin which had surprised everyone in his class from the academy. None of them had expected him to be successful at all. They all thought he'd lose to Kiba and then Neji. Then rumors of him defeating Gaara of Suna and even fighting Orochimaru surfaced. He even fought Sasuke, the best in the class to the point of complete exhaustion. But even after all that, she doubted any of them could have expected him to go down the path he did. To go from the cheerful and hyper weakling to the powerful, wicked and sometimes awkward man he had become.

"I..I see you've become pretty good with that sword.."

Said Ino causing Naruto to lift his head to face the platinum blonde sitting across from him. He wasn't expecting her to strike up a conversation, not after failing to do so the previous ten hours of their journey. He figured he might as well try talking with her, after all he'd need to improve at it eventually.

"Yeah...I guess so"

"Where did you learn how to use it?"

Questioned Ino. Despite the fact that she was still intimidated by him, that didn't destroy her curiosity. She really wanted to know what had happened to the blonde haired boy from her genin days. She remembered how Sasuke was always considered mysterious back in the academy days, back when she was a fan-girl. The mystery surrounding Naruto currently had her complete attention. She needed to know more about what had caused such a drastic change in him.

Naruto on the other hand inwardly groaned, he knew exactly what she was doing now. Forget the whole 'normal conversation' thing, she was going to try and get information out of him. Information he wasn't so sure he wanted to reveal.

"I taught myself."

"You taught yourself?"

"Yup."

Ino groaned this wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't going to tell her anything.

"You quite the social butterfly aren't you?"

Questioned Ino in a sarcastic tone. What shocked her was that he chuckled a little. That was new! Naruto smiled under his mask at the comment and chuckled a little.

"I guess you could say that."

Ino smirked, at least she had drawn some emotion from the teenage boy. Despite the verbal display of emotion she heard, the mask he wore showed no emotion. It maintained its glare through its black eye slits regardless of what she could hear from Naruto. It prevented her from seeing how he was feeling. Was he happy, sad, annoyed? She hated it, the weirdest part was that she had no idea if he was staring at her or somewhere else.

"Do you ever plan on taking off that mask?"

"I haven't taken it off for months and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon."

Ino frowned but let out a yawn, as the strain from the ten-hour journey began to hit her mentally and physically as she began giving in to sleep. Naruto noticed the yawn and smirked under his mask, she'd be leaving soon.

"Well… Nuu, I'm going to bed, I'll…see you tomorrow."

Said Ino gaining a nod from Naruto. Ino smirked and walked over to her tent and got in. She snuggled into her sleeping bag and began drifting off to sleep, content with her conversation with her old classmate. Naruto on the other hand continued to sit on the tree stump twirling his blade. Its not like they had a long conversation, and not a lot was said, but he relatively enjoyed it. Maybe Ino wasn't so bad. She was entertaining, not to mention she was pretty hot. Naruto shook his head vigorously, he couldn't think like that, he was a shinobi and that was his only priority. He couldn't worry about girls, not that he had a chance with her regardless.

o0o

The rest of the night went by normally, Naruto continued to pass time twirling Nuibari until his shift was over and he woke Shino. Shino took the remaining watch till morning, choosing not to wake Ino. Shino woke both up relatively early in order to depart for their mission. If they traveled at the same pace as yesterday they'd be there by late afternoon. The three man team continued their journey to the small village on the border of the Land of Fire. The journey was silent just as it was the day before. Ino didn't want to talk about anything that Naruto would feel fine with Shino hearing. The stuff she wanted to discuss was what he didn't want people to know. She felt that maybe she could break through to him and get her to tell him something. Naruto was fine with the silence, he did enjoy talking to Ino a little but he still preferred to not go through the awkwardness he felt when talking to someone.

It was late afternoon when the three man team made it to the village they were assigned to go to. It was very small. Only around thirty to forty houses for civilians and a town center which didn't look very large either. There didn't appear to be any shinobi in the village. The village was on cleared out section of the forest where no trees stood. However it was surrounded by trees on all sides. The three shinobi made their way to the center of town, hoping to find any information on the two chunin who were killed. They made there way to a inn located near the center of the small village and entered. There sat an old man with grey hair.

"Hello, can I help you?"

Questioned the man. Ino then spoke up.

"Yes, we've been sent here from the Leaf due to two of our shinobi being killed, would you happen to know anything about this?"

All three noticed the man's body tense at mention of the incident. He gulped and then began speaking.

"Yes… I figured they'd send someone. The two ninja your talking about were staying at my inn here. Their remains were found on the outskirts of the village near Cloud territory. One seemed to have been slashed across the chest while the other had.. his head cut off… it was a terrible sight."

Shino thought for a few seconds on the information he received. None of what he said gave away who possibly did this, they'd have to go check over the battle field later, but for now he figured they might as well call it a day, it was already relatively late and they might as well conserve their energy.

"Is there any way we could reserve three rooms?"

Questioned Shino, gaining a nod from the man in the front.

"Of course, here are your room keys, the rooms are just up the stairs. Good luck with mission and if you need anything just contact me."

Ino Smiled and thanked the man as the team began walking up the stairs.

"We'll rest for the rest of the day but tomorrow we should go to the battle field early so rest up. "

Naruto and Ino nodded as the three shinobi parted ways to their separate rooms. Shino's was across from Naruto's while Ino's was to the left of Naruto's. All three fell asleep rather early in preparation for their early wake up.

* * *

**ALso I'm still kinda debating on who the enemy should be. It could be Cloud ninja, Akatsuki, maybe Orochimaru's men, I have a lot of possibilities and plot lines I could go into so if you wouldn't mind posting what you think that'd be great thanks!**

**READ AND REVIEW!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys I know its been a really really really long time since I updated but I promise chapters will start coming out faster. I had my final trimester of school work as well as final and lacrosse to focus on so that didn't leave much time for writing. luckily I'm on Summer vacation now so i'll be able to write a lot more. **

**I wanted to thank you all for your reviews. Although I may not respond or comment about your review I assure you I read each and every one and they have been of great assistance. People have addressed a couple of wholes and issues with my story so I plan on going back through soon and editing and rewriting a bit of my earlier chapters. Please keep reviewing the story though, it really helps me find what need to work on and how people like the chapters I put out, thanks. **

**So here is the next chapter its longer then most of the others since I figured I've made you guys wait so long. So here it is!**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

* * *

Naruto woke up early and sat up in his bed. He couldn't sleep for some reason, he didn't know what it was but he hadn't slept very much the past two days. Maybe he was on edge from being on his first mission in a while, regardless of what it was it pissed him off. He turned to the clock on the bed rest beside him and saw that it was three in the morning. Naruto looked outside the window in his room and saw it was still pitch black. He wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight so he figured he might as well walk around, maybe check out the battlefield where the two shinobi were killed. He knew he probably shouldn't be doing things alone but he really didn't mind too much. The idea of Ino or Shino being mad at him really didn't scare him in the slightest.

He grabbed Nuibari which was leaning against the bed stand next to the bed he was currently sitting on. He stood up and un-hatched the window and jumped out onto the village street. There were a few lamps lit along the street, giving it an eerie lighting. Naruto began walking down the street towards the forest where the two chuunin had apparently been killed. He walked the silent streets of the city as the sun was just beginning to rise. No one was awake yet, leaving the town almost completely silent. Naruto began thinking about the skill level the enemy may be. He knew that the two who were killed were just chuunin so it wouldn't take too skilled an enemy to do this, however there was no way to tell. Anyone could have potentially done this. The key was to see if there were any clues at the battle scene that could give insight into who had done this.

Naruto neared the exit of the town and could see the large forest on the other side which was Kumo territory. There was always the possibility of being attacked by Kumo shinobi but he was pretty positive that he could defend himself if it came to that. Naruto left the outskirts of town and entered into the thick and dark forest. The forest had an eerie silence that put Naruto on edge. He held Nuibari in his right hand, tightly gripping the legendary blade. As Naruto continued to walk in the forest he began noticing many fallen tree branches and even an entire trunk on the ground, which he guessed might be effects of the battle that led to the death of the two Konoha shinobi. Naruto looked at the massive tree trunk on the ground.

The trunk was cleanly cut through, which led him to believe it was either a blade of sorts or possibly a wind based attack. Naruto continued looking around the battlefield. The location of the battle had many branches lying on the ground as well as the fully collapsed tree trunk but all other trees were still in tact. Naruto looked at all the fallen branches and noticed they were also all cleanly cut through. Naruto then heard a noise coming from behind him and instinctually threw Nuibari at the location. He turned around to a thump from his blade impacting a tree. Naruto saw Shino standing next Nuibari which was lodged in the trunk of a tree.

"You should know that you can't just leave without the rest of the team…."

Said Shino. Naruto was somewhat confused about how Shino found him. Naruto had nearly mastered silent killing which utilized complete silence when moving. Naruto moved around with this same ability so he was confused and somewhat impressed by the fact that Shino had found him.

"I placed one of my insects on you at the beginning of the mission so that I could always know where you were. I also have one placed on Ino, who should be here relatively soon since I woke her. I'm able to track where you and Ino are due to my bugs absorbing an extremely small amount of chakra from you. "

Naruto was now impressed, he had definitely underestimated the abilities of Shino.

"Now I've used this ability on people countless amounts of times, but I've memorized most of the rookie nine's chakra signatures due to me using it on them on so many occasions…"

Said Shino causing Naruto to tense at the idea of where this was going.

"Your chakra was always memorable when we were younger, I distinctly remember when Anko, you, Ino and I went to the Land of the Sea. It always seemed evil or demonic, of course I didn't know you were a jinchuriki back then… Naruto."

Naruto yanked on the wires attached to Nuibari, causing it to fly back into his hand. He proceeded to lower the blade to his side as he stared at Shino's almost completely covered face.

"You're a pretty clever guy Shino, your one of the few who've found me out."

Shino stared at the masked swordsman who did turn out to be Naruto. He hd discovered the ominous chakra signature coming from Naruto a couple of minutes after starting their journey and remembered back from missions with Naruto. He had discovered the fact that Naruto was a jinchuriki about a year after Naruto left the village when Tsunade told all the rookie nine along with Team Gai. This answered the question of why Naruto had such ominous or almost evil chakra signature. Shino decided not to confront the masked swordsman until he was alone with him since Naruto obviously had his reasons for keeping his identity a secret.

"Its been a very long time Naruto, care to tell me where you've been these past years, and why you're keeping your identity a secret?"

Questioned Shino, who was inwardly completely confused about Naruto's motives for secrecy and his whereabouts for the past years that he had been gone.

"I'll tell you the same thing I've told all the others that know, that I'll reveal information when I'm ready. I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd respect my wishes and not tell or talk about this with anyone."

Said Naruto, still hoping to keep the number of people with knowledge of who he was minimal.

"Very well, but I do expect some answers in due time Naruto. Everyone has been looking for and wondering about you."

Naruto nodded his head, agreeing to reveal some information in time. Just as Naruto finished nodding his head he sensed Ino very close by. She soon appeared jumping through trees and landed next to Shino.

"You can't just run off and do what you'd like! You have to follow orders from Shino and even me!"

Screamed Ino in an irritated tone. Who the hell did he think he was!? She knew he was strong but that didn't mean he had a free reign to do as he pleased, there were rules that Naruto would have to follow if he wanted to be a Leaf Shinobi again.

"It's alright Ino, I've addressed the issue with him. Lets move on and address the mission and where we are."

Said Shino earning a sigh from Ino signifying her dropping of the subject.

"Do you have any ideas or information on what happened and who did this?"

Questioned Shino, which gained a response from Naruto.

"From what I've gathered from the cut down branches and trees, and knowledge of what happened to the two chuunin, I'd say a shinobi or shinobis who used kenjutsu were responsible. All the branches and trees are cleanly cut through and the two chuunin died from forms of cutting. What the Hokage and mission report didn't tell us is that the two were killed in Kumo territory, which means Kumo nin could have easily attacked them."

This gained a nod from SHino. Ino stared at the masked Naruto. She was inwardly shocked at how he had become so much more observant. He had come up with pretty good description of the type of fighter and had a good reason for why said person attacked the Konoha nin. Ino and Shino began to do their own investigation of the battle ground. Naruto on the other hand remained on guard. If his hunch was correct and Kumo shinobi had killed the two chuunin, then who's to say that they won't be attacked. Ino and Shino continued to look around for another twenty minutes until Naruto's hunch came true.

A kunai came hurling strait at Ino's back from somewhere in the forest. Ino span around with kunai in hand to deflect the incoming projectile. Naruto and Shino darted to the sides of Ino in preparation for combat.

"You guys seem much better then the previous two that entered out territory."

Said a male who emerged from the forest in front of them along side two women. The boy was dark-skinned with white hair. One of the two women who looked around the same age as boy and had the same skin tone but had scarlet red hair. The other woman looked older than the other two. She had short blonde hair and very large breasts. All three carried swords and had them drawn.

The boy gained a perplexed appearance as he looked at the masked man in front of him.

"That's a pretty weird weapon you've got there."

Said the boy as he pointed directly at the masked Naruto. The blonde haired women's expression turned very serious once she took notice of the weapon that the masked shinobi had in hand.

"Omoi quiet! This might not be as easy as I thought. If that masked man is even somewhat proficient at wielding that blade we may have a large problem at hand. That's one of the Seven Legendary Swords of the mist, Nuibari. How a Konoha shinobi managed to get it is beyond me but be careful."

A shocked expression emerged on the younger boy and girl at the mention of the Seven Legendary Swords of the Mist. The boy then spoke up.

"Well Samui, I guess this will be good experience for both Karui and I."

Just as the boy finished speaking, a fourth Kumo shinobi appeared. He looked relatively young and had blonde hair.

"I sensed three unfamiliar chakra sources and decided to check it out. I guess your team found them as well Samui."

Spoke the blonde haired boy. The woman named Samui then responded.

"It's good to see you C, these three may give us some trouble so its good that you arrived to help."

Said Samui, causing C to smirk and shout.

"I'm looking forward to wiping the floor with these Konoha dogs!"

Meanwhile, Naruto was beginning to get a little nervous. The two shinobi named Samui and C were clearly jonin level shinobi while the other two seemed to be high chuunin rank. The biggest issue that Naruto would have to take into account would be the lack of combat experience he had alongside either of his two comrades at the moment.

"Do either of you have any idea how I fight?"

Questioned Naruto which caused Ino and Shino to both shake their heads signifying no.

"I guess we'll simply have to learn on the fly, I will start off by destroying their sensory abilities."

Said Shino as he began to go through hand signals for his jutsu.

"Insect Jamming technique!"

Some of Shino's bugs began dispersing from his body and all flew in different directions. They also emitted small amounts of chakra. This would confuse sensory ninja due tot here being so many chakra signals. C noticed the bugs dispersing and began to use his sensory abilities to see where they were going, only to discover their true purpose.

"Dammit, that guy is from the Aburame clan who specialize in using bugs. He spread a lot of his insects out and made them emit chakra so I can't make out any specific chakra signature, there are too many for me to go through. There definitely not that weak, get reedy you guys."

Said C as he began going through hand signs.

"Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning Pillar!"

This caused an extremely bright light to emanate from C's body. Ino and Shino both shut their eyes and turned away from the emanating light. Naruto went through hand signs for his shadow clone jutsu and summoned two clones who each appeared in front of Ino and Shino. The three Naruto's closed their eye's extremely tight in order to block out the radiating light. Naruto knew this was some form of a distraction and guessed that a close ranged attack would occur. All three Naruto's listened intently, attempting to pick up on any noise that would give away the enemy's position. He heard three pairs of foot steps approaching and each respective Naruto charged at one of the sounds. The clanging of metal was heard as the swords of the cloud ninja connected with Nuibaris.

C recalled his jutsu with the knowledge of their attack failing. This revealed Samui, Karui and Omoi's blades being intercepted by three Nuibari blades, all wielded by a Naruto. The three cloud swordsman leapt back, which caused Naruto to dispel his two shadow clones.

"That guy with the sword is strong, he single handily stopped our combination attack"

Grunted Omoi as he raised is sword into a defensive position.

"Ino and Shino, I'm going to need to fight full strength against these guys if we want to get out of this alive. I'll have clones defend you once I activate my next jutsu, it'll be difficult for you two to fight but this will be necessary, these guys are very skilled."

Whispered Naruto to his two comrades as he flew through the hand signs for his new signature jutsu.

"Hidden Mist technique!"

A thick mist began to descend upon the battlefield. Shino had heard of the jutsu which Zabuza had used in his fight against Team 7 during their genin days, although he'd never seen it before. The first thing he noticed was that he could barely see at all. His range of vision spanned a measly 10 feet. Ino also was seeing this jutsu for the first time and had the same issue of a lack of ability to see very far.

"How do you expect us to fight with you if we can't see!"

Shouted Ino which gained a quiet response from Shino.

"Ino, this is the best chance we have now, the enemy are clearly very strong, not to mention the fact that they outnumber us. They have the same issue we have right now but we may gain an advantage if Naruto if able to fight proficiently in the mist."

Ino nodded, understanding that this may give them an advantage but quickly came to the realization that Shino addressed Naruto by his name.

"You know who he is?"

Questioned Ino.

"We're in battle right now, we can discuss this later."

The cloud ninja quickly became cautious of the mist that had now engulfed the battlefield. Samui frowned at the sight of the mist. Samui prided herself in her knowledge regarding the history of shinobi. She knew what weapons certain shinobi wielded and even their signature jutsu. She had originally only studied famous Kumo shinobi such as the Gold and Silver Brothers. But after consuming most of the information regarding famous Kumo shinobi she broadened her studies to famous shinobi across the world. This included the Seven Legendary Swordsman of the Mist and their blades. While researching the Seven Swordsman, she learned that they specialized in silent killing, utilizing the Hidden Mist Technique to perform silent killing.

"Omoi, Karui, the one we have to worry about is they guy with the mask, he likely uses the Silent Killing technique so always be on guard, you to C."

Said Samui gaining nods from her fellow Cloud shinobi. She then heard an eerie voice echo through the mist.

"You seem to know quite a bit about my fighting style without out fighting me, that's pretty impressive."

"I've done my fair share of research on the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, however I was under the impression that Kushimaru Kuriarare was dead."

Answered Samui, which cause a high-pitched laughter to echo throughout the mist.

"Hehe, well that would be correct. Fortunately for you I'm not him or else you'd surely be finished. I'm the new wielder of Nuibari, other wise known as the sewing needle."

Omoi and Karui both shook at the high-pitched laughter which echoed through the mist, causing them to tighten their grip on their swords.

"I feel like that's enough chit chatting for now… LET'S BEGIN!"

Screeched Naruto as he threw Nuibari straight at the shinobi named Omoi. Naruto grinned when he noticed that the ninja didn't see the blade heading strait for him. Unfortunately his grin disappeared into a frown as the women named Samui dashed in front of the boy. She used her sword to deflect the blade and alter its path to barely miss hitting the boy in the head.

"Shit!"

Yelled Omoi as he noticed that the needle blade had barely missed hitting him directly in the head. Naruto yanked at Nuibari's wires sending it back into his hand. Omoi leapt to the left as he noticed the blade somehow flying back into the mist.

"I told you to always be alert Omoi. If you let down your guard for a second you might die. C can you find him at all?"

Questioned Samui. She knew that they were in trouble if they couldn't find the masked swordsman. As of now they were sitting ducks waiting to be killed. C was facing his own struggles. His sensory abilities were the best in the Kumo, yet they had now been rendered completely useless. He couldn't sense anything in the mist due to it being constructed from chakra. Not to mention the boy from the Aburame clan had scattered so many bugs that were exerting chakra that he couldn't identify the three Konoha nin even if the mist wasn't present.

"No my sensory abilities are useless right now."

Naruto then went through the hand signs to his shadow clone jutsu, allowing him to create ten shadow clones. He figured he'd test out his opposition's kenjutsu skills. The women named Samui seemed to be skilled but he didn't know about the two younger ninjas named Omoi and Karui. The sensory typed ninja named C was still a mystery. He was obviously a skilled sensory typed ninja and was apparently talented in genjutsu which was seen in his just he activated but overall he was still a mystery. The ten shadow clones quickly dashed towards the cloud shinobi.

The four Kumo shinobi were attempting to come up with a strategy to fight within the mist but were interrupted by the sight of multiple copies of the masked swordsman that they were battling. Samui charged forward to meet the multiple clones with Karui alongside her. One of the shadow clones lunged its copy of Nuibari at Samui. She successfully countered by hitting the needle blade from below,causing the clones lunge to go over her right shoulder. Samui then brought her blade down across the clones chest, causing it to disperse. Two of the shadow clones had leapt to both sides of Samui. The clone on the right threw its blade towards her feet, which caused her to leap into the air. Once she was in the air the clone to the right threw its copy of Nuibari at the airborne shinobi's head, however Samui skillfully arched her back causing the blade to soar over head.

"Cloud-Style Front Beheading!"

Said Karui as she swiftly moved her blade down upon one of the two clones who had thrown its blade at Samui and quickly dispersed it due to it being defenseless. Omoi ran at the other clone who had attacked Samui and raised his blade to attack. Three of Naruto's shadow clones ran at him from behind, preparing to lunge their blades into Omoi's back. However, this was what Omoi had wanted.

"Cloud-Style Reverse Beheading!"

The three shadow clones behind Omoi were quickly dispersed, not expecting to be attacked in the slightest. Samui then threw her sword at the remaining shadow clone who lacked a weapon and dispersed it. That left four more shadow clones. C was handling two of the shadow clones, barely managing to evade the many lightning fast lunges and slashes being unleashed upon him. Being a Jonin he was able to handle the onslaught. C ducked under one of the shadow clones lunges and launched a kick, successfully hitting it in the chest and dispersing it. Two more shadow clones then arrived at C's location, surrounding him.

"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!"

Yelled C as electric current ran from his hands and spread to the ground where the clones were, electrocuting them and dispersing them.

Naruto frowned, these guys were good. Even the two named Karui and Omoi who weren't Jonin were talented chuunin. However, the two chuunin weren't that big an issue, the two jonin would be difficult to deal with though. He also had to take into account that their team was currently in Kumo territory. If the battle got to out of hand reinforcements could arrive for the enemy. He would have to end this battle quickly or make a large enough distraction so that him and his team could escape. Naruto made his way over to Ino and Shino who also discussing what they should do. Once Ino got sight of Naruto she spoke up.

"Naruto we need to get out of here, we know who killed the Chunin and we know why. We're at a huge disadvantage since Shino and I can't fight in the Mist. Plus the enemy is strong it would be smart if we retreated."

Naruto took in Ino's words and knew that they made the most sense. The enemies they were fighting were no pushovers and the logical choice would be to pull out. There was nothing to be gained from this battle, however Naruto was pretty sure the enemy wouldn't be so inclined as to simply allow them to flee. There was still also the matter that Naruto individually didn't want to retreat.

"I've got a plan, and you two are simply going to have to go along with it. Shino I know your in command but you don't understand my abilities nor the level of my abilities, so I'm pleading you to take Ino and get out of here. If you stay you'll get severely injured."

Shino contemplated the statement that Naruto just told him. There was no stuttering, or hints of doubt in his voice. Naruto had a plan and seemed sure he could handle the situation. Not to mention the fact that him and Ino were essentially useless fighting right now.

"We're not just going to leave you here Naruto! You can't expect us too…"

Ino was cut off as Shino raised his hand signifying her to stop.

"Very well Naruto, I hope you know what you're doing."

"But we can't just.."

Ino was cut off again as Shino spoke up.

"Ino as team leader this is an order, let's head out."

Ino held back her anger at just abandoning Naruto. She hadn't done anything this mission, she was only a hinderance. Naruto probably thought she was the same weakling from their genin days. He wasn't any better than her, why was he trying to be a hero? Shino then began running out of the mist towards the village they stayed in.

"Ino, let's go."

Called Shino. Ino simply stared at Naruto, angry and confused at the actions he was taking. She began to turn to run out of the mist when Naruto spoke up.

"Ino… thank you."

Ino slowly processed the words that caused her anger to vanish. His voice was so calm and it almost sounded worried. She nodded her head at Naruto before beginning to run out of the mist.

0o0

Unfortunately for the Konoha team the Kumo shinobi they were facing guessed they were attempting to escape.

"That guy wasn't that tough Samui, we handled him and his clones pretty easily!"

Boasted Karui after they defeated the shadow clones of the masked swordsman. Although Samui didn't verbalize her opinion she agreed. Her expectation for the masked swordsman had been high at the sight of Nuibari but from what she'd seen the man wasn't very proficient with it. Granted she had faced shadow clones, but it was still easy for their team to dispose of them. She listened as Omoi and karui talked and bragged about their recent defeat of the ten shadow clones and their eagerness to defeat the Konoha team. Samui waited patiently for the swordsman to resume his attack but nothing happened.

"I think their attempting to escape Samui."

Said C which gained a nod from Samui. C wasn't planning on letting intruders simply escape without any punishment. The last two Konoha nin who entered were killed and he didn't plan on letting these three simply prance away unscathed. C also wasn't very impressed with his opponents. The only one who he faced was the masked swordsman and his shadow clones didn't seem too impressive.

"Samui I'm not going to let them escape, we're going to finish them off."

Spoke C which gained nods from all three of his comrades.

"Lightning Style: Four Pillar Bind!"

Ninjutsu wasn't C's specialty. He was prolifically a sensor and a medic and preferred using genjutsu but being a jonin he did know a considerable amount of ninjutsu. Being a medic and sensor he generally didn't engage too much with powerful ninjutsu. The jutsu he used was the one he performed most when he did use ninjutsu. C was typically paired up with Darui on missions who was a ninjutsu powerhouse. The jutsu C just used was the most helpful for him and Darui on missions because it prevented enemies from escaping. This jutsu caused four stone pillars to emerge from the ground. Electric current was passed in-between them, which boxed the enemy into an area, preventing escape.

0o0

Shino and Ino continued running through the mist even when they felt tremors in the ground. They had to get out of the battlefield so Naruto could go ahead with whatever he was planning. The mist began clearing up the farther they ran, signifying that they were nearing the exit. The more the mist cleared, the more Ino and Shino heard a loud buzzing noise. As they approached the exit of the mist their visibility was greatly increased. This allowed them to see two giant stone pillars and what looked like a wall of electricity blocking their exit. Ino cursed, they couldn't get out now.

Naruto created five shadow clones after he heard a loud trembling. The Kumo shinobi had conducted some jutsu but he didn't know what. He sent all of them to search the mist to see what occurred. After a couple of minutes the clones all dispersed giving Naruto the knowledge he was seeking. The jutsu the Kumo shinobi had launched created an electrical barrier which prevented escape. This definitely got in the way of his team's plan. The electric current was preventing Shino and Ino from escaping. Naruto knew how to deal with the issue but it would force him to unveil one of his strongest techniques.

He was surprisingly not to angry about having to unveil this technique. He found himself genuinely caring about the well being of his teammates. Well, teammates was a stretch as Shino wasn't that important to him. He didn't mind the guy but it's not like he had a close bond with him. Then again he also didn't have a close bond with Ino. But he found himself relatively concerned for her well-being. Sure they hadn't really talked to much, ok well maybe that was an understatement, they'd barely talked with each other at all. She also probably thought he was insane and obsessed with killing. When they did talk it was usually pretty awkward….. or about how he held her hostage…. but that was besides the point! Regardless of how their conversation went or what she thought about him, he cared for her a little. She made him laugh, which had become a rare occurrence for him and she actually made him happy. Unveiling a technique paled in importance to her well-being.

"Secret Technique: Mist Rain!"

Said Naruto which caused a heavy rain to begin falling within the mist. Naruto smirked under his mask. These Kumo shinobi were going to learn his full abilities.

Ino and Shino stood near the electric wall, both thinking of what to do to get past the wall. Their thoughts were interrupted as they began to feel drops of rain began to fall upon them.

"Shino what's going on?"

Questioned Ino as the rain began to fall harder in the mist. The strangest part was that Shino and Ino could see that it had become sunny outside of the mist.

"It must be one of Naruto's or the Kumo shinobi's techniques."

Responded Shino. Shino's gaze returned to the electrical wall. The more he looked at it, the more he noticed that the electric current was seeming to get smaller. Soon the electric current had completely disappeared shocking both him and Ino.

"Wh…What is happening?"

Said an extremely confused Ino. Unfortunately for her she gained no response from Shino. He quickly darted out of the mist and past the stone pillars. Ino soon followed suit as they exited the mist and entered the sunlight from the now rising sun.

"It must have been Naruto's jutsu but we've got to get going."

Said Shino, gaining a nod from Ino as they began running towards the town they spent the night in.

0o0

C was completely confused, one second it started raining and the next he felt that his Four Pillar Bind technique had been rendered useless.

It was as if the chakra in the jutsu had been sapped up by the air.

"Samui my jutsu was just negated somehow, it must have something to do with this rain. They can escape now, any idea what this rain is."

Said C with gritted teeth, angry that the enemy could now escape. Samui shared C's confusion regarding the rain.

"I have no idea C."

Naruto smirked as he listened in on their conversation. The Mist Rain was probably his second most advanced jutsu that he had at his disposal. He decided that he'd help out his enemies with their curiosity regarding the rain he created.

"I've got a pretty good idea of what this rain is, hehe."

Said Naruto, his voice echoing through the mist. The hearing of his voice causing the Kumo nin to all tighten their guard. All four of them were somewhat disturbed by the high-pitched laughter that they heard. Naruto lightened the mist so the Kumo shinobi could see him. All four of them narrowed their eyes at the masked swordsman the second he became visible. They saw him twirling his needle sword in his right hand as he began to speak.

"This is one of my signature techniques, Mist Rain. As you may have noticed your lighting technique was rendered useless once the rain began to fall. This is because my Mist Rain eats up any chakra it comes in contact with that isn't mine. Its a pretty great jutsu , huh?"

Questioned Naruto, he began to laugh at the look of shock on the Kumo shinobi's face. All four of the Cloud ninja thought it was insane. A jutsu that rendered all ninjutsu useless.

"I think you'll all see now that I'm not as weak as you think."

Said Naruto as he made the mist thicker in order to once again decrease the enemies visibility. He waited in the mist for a few second before he unleashed his assault. He noticed that C and Samui were standing alone while Omoi and Karui were back to back. He figured he'd start off attacking the two chuunin and attempt to finish them off.

Naruto darted full speed at Omoi and Karui. The difference in speed from the shadow clones to the original Naruto was suprising to the Kumo shinobi. Omoi noticed the attacking swordsman and swung laterally at the incoming Naruto's waste. Naruto moved Nuibari to his side and blocked the incoming strike. he saw another strike coming from Karui who was bringing her sword down from overhead, aiming at Naruto's shoulder. Naruto leapt into the air, successfully avoiding Karui's strike. Omoi and Karui were now both turned and facing the airborne Naruto. Naruto threw Nuibari at Omoi's waste who sidestepped the incoming blade. As Naruto descended from the air he pushed the wire of Nuibari outward, which caused the blade to curve back around Omoi and into Naruto's other hand.

The wire from Nuibari was now behind Omoi's feet, unnoticed by Kumo chuunin due to his lack of vision. Naruto yanked Nuibari in his right hand, and the wire from the blade in his left hand forward. This caused the excess wire stationed behind Omoi to be pulled sharply against the back of his legs, successfully taking his feet out from under him. Omoi fell to the ground, catching the attention of Karui who looked over at her teammate who was currently on the ground. Naruto noticed this and fired his blade at the the girl's heart. Karui barely noticed in time and attempted to duck under the incoming blade but was too slow. The blade pierced through her left shoulder as she let out a scream of pain. Had she not tried to duck the girl would have been killed.

Naruto quickly caught the blade on the other side of Karui as the blade past through her shoulder. Not one to dwell on his success he quickly refocused on Omoi who was still on the ground. Naruto prepared to fire Nuibari at Omoi's head who was currently sitting up on the ground. As Naruto fired the blade out of his hand Omoi stood up, causing the blade to pass through his middle thigh. Karui let out another scream of pain as more wire ran threw her wound with every throw of the weapon. Omoi soon followed soon suite, yelling in pain as the blade went through his thigh. Naruto once again caught his blade on the other side of Omoi.

"Well that's disappointing, neither of you died. Oh well."

Said Naruto in mockingly sad tone.

"Well Karui, that's your name I believe, would you still consider me weak, hehe"

Laughed Naruto.

"You bastard.. Ahhhh!"

Yelled Karui as Naruto yanked upwards on the wires, causing them to cut more of Karui's flesh. Samui looked on in anger and shock as this masked swordsman successfully defeated Omoi and Karui. He could kill them at any second, she had to act.

Samui ran at the wielder of Nuibari, lunging with her sword at his chest. Naruto hit her blade upward, causing her sword to go over his shoulder while also drawing more groans of pain from the two chuunin who had been skewered by his blade. Samui pulled her sword back and leapt away. Every time that bastard moved his sword it hurt Omoi and Karui.

Naruto grinned under his mask the two jonin couldn't do anything. Anytime they attacked he would counter with Nuibari, which inflicted pain to Omoi and Karui who were stuck on his wires.

Samui leapt towards C who wasn't of much use any more, unable to use ninjutsu, genjutsu or his sensory abilities. Samui told C her plan that she had just come up with. If they could free Omoi and Karui from the wires then they might gain an advantage again. Samui's planned revolved around C distracting the masked swordsman while she cut the wire.

C started the attack by firing multiple kunai at the masked swordsman. The man evaded the first two but soon noticed that a few had explosive tags attached to them. Naruto leapt int he air, avoiding the explosions from the tags. While in air he saw Samui running over to the wires where Karui and Omoi were. He cursed himself. If those two were freed this fight would be much more difficult. As soon as Naruto landed Samui had almost made it to the wire. Naruto darted over to intercept her blade that was now coming down to cut the wire. He soon realized that he wouldn't make it in time but came up with another idea. He channeled chakra into his hand to maximize the speed of his throw, and fired Nuibari at Samui's waste.. He wouldn't be able to stop her from freeing Omoi and Karui but he'd either kill or wound Samui who was much more a threat then the other two.

Samui noticed the incoming blade just as her blade was about to cut through the wire holding Omoi and Karui. She knew that she could either carry on with her slash to cut the wire and free the younger chuunin or deflect the incoming blade and avoid injury. Samui decided to carry on with her slash as she cut through the wire with the cloud-beheading technique. Just as she cut through the wire Nuibari pierced through her stomach, causing her to caught up blood.

"Samui!"

Yelled all three of the cloud shinobi as the blade went through her. Naruto caught the blade on the other side of her. Naruto purposely didn't aim for anything vital in order to keep her as a hostage of sorts. C quickly ran at Naruto, unleashing rapid punches him. Naruto was surprised at C's skill and managed to avoid the jonin's attack by constantly leaping away dodging. C continued his assault launching punch after punch, which was backing up Naruto further and further. C lunged for a punch to Naruto's gut but Naruto hit his hand downwards. Naruto quickly twirled his blade, preparing to bring Nuibari down on the off balance ninja until he heard foot steps approaching from behind him. He cursed himself as he realized that C's taijutsu assault was all a diversion. Naruto attempted to side step the sword strike that he knew was coming but couldn't. Karui, using only her left arm brought her sword across Naruto's left arm. The cut was relatively deep and Naruto grunted in pain.

Temporarily ignoring his wound he slammed the but end of Nuibari into Karui's face, sending her skidding across the ground. Unfortunately Naruto had forgotten about C who was currently next to him. C ripped out a kunai and lunged it into the left side of Naruto's stomach. Naruto cringed in pain and whipped Nuibari around in his right hand, lunging it at C's neck. C back flipped but was hit two the right of his spinal cord by Naruto's lunge. Fortunately for C Naruto had only lunged and not thrown the blade so it didn't go through him.

Naruto knew this was trouble he had a severe wounds on the left side of his stomach and left arm, he needed to get out of here or end the fight. He pulled at the wires from Nuibari, removing them from Samui who groaned in pain as wires passed through her. After the wires were removed from her she collapsed to the ground. Karui also laid unconscious on the ground from a combination of blood loss and from her face being hit by the but end of Nuibari. Omoi was barely mobile from his wound to the leg while C was bleeding from the wound to his back. Overall, everyone there was in bad shape.

"Well, this has been fun, but I must be off *cough*, I hope you enjoy my parting gift."

Said Naruto, coughing up a little blood. He then began going through hand signs for his next jutsu.

"Water Style: Black Rain"

The rain and mist began to disappear and turn into small black clouds. C didn't like this and ran to Samui with his remaining energy and called to Omoi.

"Omoi, grab karui we've got to try to get out of here!"

Omoi successfully got to Karui while battling shooting pains in his leg. C's injury wasn't too bad but he knew Samui's would be fatal if it didn't get treated soon. if he could just get away from this masked swordsman, he could heal them all. Naruto began darting out of the mist as fast as he could. He was applying pressure to his stomach wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He made it to the clearance of the mist just as the black clouds were getting bigger.

Omoi and C made their way through the blackening mist as fast as possible. C didn't like this at all. He knew the changing of color of the mist was a result of th Nuibari wielder's just but he didn't know what it did. He began to see small skimmers of light just as the mist turned completely black. C began sprinting as fast as he could to get out of the mist while Omoi trudged along a little slower due to his wound. then the black mist dispersed into liquid and fell all over where the mist had been. C and Omoi quickly realized the liquid on them was oil and realized that the situation was crucial now. He was going to blow up the entire area. They began pumping any chakra they had left into their legs to get out of the oil covered forest.

Naruto pulled out a senbon needle with an explosive tag. He was going to get rid of his enemies who did this to him.

"Have fun in hell ass holes, HEHE!"

Screeched Naruto. he couldn't see his enemies but figured they were still in the oil covered field. Naruto fired the senbon needle into the oil covered forest. BOOM!

Omoi and C had somehow managed to get out of the oil covered field and were trying to get distance from the oil covered area that was about to detonate. Then C and Omoi heard the detonation of an explosion. Then another and another. Explosion after explosion rocked the forest. C realized that they hadn't gained enough distance from oil covered area and told Omoi to prepare for an impact.

The explosion from the senbon set off explosion after explosion in the oil covered field. Every ignition caused another as soon the entire area where the mist once was became consumed by explosions. They started towards the center of where the mist once was and went outwards. The explosions at the perimeter of the oil covered forest sent the Kumo ninja flying backwards into trees. Omoi and C took the impacts, sheltering their injured comrades. Naruto also felt the impact after not getting far enough away and was sent flying back until he impacted into a tree.

0o0

C groaned as he sat up from the impact of the explosions. He quickly placed Samui on the ground and began healing her wound to her stomach. He ad began treatment in time so he believed she would live as long as she didn't engage in combat anytime soon. Omoi limped over to C and placed Karui on the ground. She had a bad shoulder wound and was bleeding pretty bad but she would also live. As C was healing the two girls his thoughts went to the wielder of Nuibari who was able to defeat two elite Jonin of Kumo and two high chuunin by himself. He had displayed magnificent skill with his blade while also possessing great ninjutsu ability. The only question running through C's mind was who was this Konoha shinobi? He'd definitely have to discuss it with the Raikage when he was able to return.

Naruto laid on the ground after the impact of the explosion. He'd lost a considerable amount of blood from his two wounds and didn't know if he'd be able to get back to Konoha alive. He managed to stagger to his feet, using Nuibari as a crutch. However he quickly collapsed to the ground, exhausted and bleeding. He slowly began to loose consciousness. The last thing he remembered was someone with long platinum blond hair kneeling beside him before he blacked out.

* * *

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**Thanks for Reading!**


	11. Notice

Hey everyone, thanks for reading my story and for the great response I've gotten from it. I really wasn't expecting as large a following as I've gotten and with a larger following comes more criticism of what I've done wrong. These reviews that have pointed out the flaws in my writing style, grammar errors and wholes in the plot and overall story, have been very helpful and made me realize that I have to go back through and edit some of my older chapters and even little bits of my new ones. I've been wanting to do this for a while but simply haven't had the time but now that I'm on summer break I feel as if I have more then enough time.

This won't take very long at all, probably somewhere between 2-3 days and then I'll try and publish a new chapter as fast as possible afterwards. I know that a lot of you want a new chapter to come out very quickly but this is just something I feel like I need to do so hopefully you all understand.

If any of you have any opinions on what should be fixed (edited in or out), where grammatical errors are, or any plot wholes that are obvious, it would be much appreciated. Also just because you want something to be added or changed doesn't mean I'll do it.

I sincerely thank you for your reading of this story and I'll be back soon with the update story and a new chapter following soon after.


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